In Ruin
by EnergiyaB
Summary: Sinnoh: Its really in the North Pacific. Here, an unlikely protagonist uncovers a plot to keep its residents ignorant of the outside world and their past and in the process, he discovers adventure, love and the secret behind the nature of life itself.
1. Prologue

The ship moved slowly from side to side, pushing forward through the black waters of the North Pacific. It was probably around midnight and most of the lights on the ship were extinguished save the fog light illuminating the ocean in front, and a floodlight that lit up the deck.

On that deck was myself, staring out into the boundless ocean that I only could guess went off for thousands of kilometres in every direction, full of nothing but churning, empty water.

The metal railings felt like ice under my arms as I leant on them, trusting that they would not separate from the ship and would therefore send me plummeting into the freezing water below. The bolts held, as I thought they would. The ship was secure.

I believe the ship was called the MV Kingfisher. It was the one of the only ship allowed to ferry passengers from mainland North America and the Isles. It was a small, nondescript fishing vessel converted into a cargo carrier. The boat would have not been out of place in any marina along the West coast of Canada, a characteristic that was essential for its purpose.

You see, the Isles are very isolationist, so much so that globalization has not made much of an impact on them. As a phenomenon it occurred in almost every other country in the world, even in those countries of course that were just forgotten by the international community. For instance in Burkina Faso, you would still be able to see someone dressed in an old Pepsi-branded t-shirt or in branded running shoes. This did not occur in the isles, due to many restrictive shipping and immigration legislation. There are no Nike shoes on the isles.

In fact, most people there had no idea that any of the outside world existed. Of course, people didn't necessarily think that the world ended at the edge of their island's horizon, but at the same time, the rest of the world was viewed with suspicion.

Knowledge was only dispensed to those with political or economic connections on a need-to-know basis. It was mostly people that were involved in orchestrating trade between the outside world and the islands; CEOs, legislators of the countries of the Pacific. Other than that, no one had any tangible evidence that these islands even existed.

So, for a country of such an isolationist policy, why was I admitted in? Why was I so special? It was probably due to the one opening that had been made earlier this year to allow for an exchange program of sorts for education there. You see, the head of education there was becoming aware that students in other countries that had had the opportunity to go to school in abroad often had higher averages and were often more well rounded.

Exposure to a mixture of cultures always positively influenced students for centuries. To try to emulate the experience within the Isles, he decided instead of sending students away from the public schools within his country, he would attract students from other countries to come and study there. It was to be something of an experiment in openness. Perhaps the students there could demonstrate that the islands could eventually overcome its isolation and join the international community?

That's where I come in. I was selected from thousands of grade eleven applicants across the US and was now being shipped to live and study in the high school/university there called the National Polytechnic Academy (Or just the "Polytechnic" for short). This was of course paid for courtesy of the government. I didn't have the money to go myself. I barely had enough money to pay for food once I got there.

As part of this new program, I was to stay there for a month for the administration there to learn the logistics of keeping over two hundred students in the country. Students who were to come from over eighty countries, from countries as far away as Tanzania to just across the ocean in nearby Japan. Housing so many people was not a problem to the government, but housing the culture and influences that came along with so many would as thought by many to be not possible.

Many members of the government believed that it was unfeasible, unpredictable, and unsafe. Through much debate, they reluctantly allowed the project to take place. It would just remain under wraps from the public until they found how it would actually pan out. I always thought that it was hilarious for them to think that as they would be housing everyone in the program in one of the largest cities in the country, right near where thousands would come in contact with them.

In order for us to not draw attention to ourselves, we were to become model United Islanders, fitting into the society at large as if we were born there, pretending to the public that we had lived on an island that they had never heard of, somewhere else in the archipelago that they called home.

This would probably be a good thing. People have not moved to the islands in that volume for over half a century. One of the first people to break that trend was I...

The wind had picked up, howling through the open windows below the bridge, which were immediately shut by the crew. The wind didn't bother me; in fact I rather enjoyed it; the way the cool mist came off of the ocean seemed to keep me alert and awake, so I could take in the view from the bow of the ship. It wasn't much to most people, but to me it was fascinating as I had never seen an ocean before. It was probably why I signed on to be one of the members of this great experiment.

The promise of studying in a place that had such a diverse ecosystem, surrounded by nothing but open warm pacific water allured all but the most boring among the population of the world. It was far from the Midwest as you could get no more fields and empty cities for a while.

The place where I came from was a dead city. Not dead in the sense that everyone left, like the ghost towns of the old west, but dead in the fact that it's the syndrome that some cities get. The one where everyone starts living in the suburbs and commuting to work, to school and the next block over. No one walked anymore, no one got out and did anything. I guess it might as well have been a ghost town. This had been avoided on the isles by never importing cars, but then again they didn't import much of anything.

I didn't have that many friends. Most people were too concerned about things I had no interest in; their self image, their pathetic high school love life, et cetera. It all seemed too petty for me. When I put in my application for my spot at the academy, I wrote about these things. I to this day still think that that is why I was admitted.

The fact that the school that the applicant would be arriving at would be newly renovated helped to increase the number of applicants. It had one of the most extensive, diverse and research-intensive program there, from everything from biochemistry to what I came for, the history.

The history of the islands was one of the most unique in the world. Due to a combination of remoteness and isolation, most of the archaeological sites in the region had been left intact. Even a conquest by the Spanish did little to destroy this country's amazing history. What happened to the Great Pyramids of Giza never happened there. No tomb robbers to take all of the stuff inside these sites.

These places gave a clear look at what the islands would have been like before the arrival of the Europeans nearly 500 years ago. The islands were actually discovered by the west in 1539 by Dutch sailors, who were looking for a place to moor their ships while waiting out a storm. This all could have been myth of course, but they did dock at the island where they came in contact with the natives of the island. Not much is known about them, their language and culture is now dead.

They apparently got along great with the islanders and decided to set up a semi-permanent camp on the northernmost island. This was mostly to trade small items and such and to resupply with fresh food on the long sea voyages the Dutch spice fleet had to travel to reach ports in the west. So what better name to call the islands other than "Eilanden van de Fluyt" which doesn't make a lot of sense in English, but when translated means the islands of the Fluyt, which were the iconic Dutch ship of the time.

However, this did not last. Due to the politics of Europe, the small colony would soon have to be handed over to the Spanish. The Anglo-Spanish war of 1585 (Which is best known for the Spanish Armada) ended with a treaty which handed over the territory of the islands to Spain. Spain, although it lost the battle of the Spanish Armada, did come out ahead in the end. The Dutch were forced to leave, the colony was officially closed.

When the Spanish arrived, the islands were still left largely undiscovered and undeveloped. To change this, they decided to attempt to repeat what they did in South America. Conquer, Plunder and then Populate. The first part was easily achieved. Much like in the Caribbean, the natives of the islands were erased from history. In the Caribbean, there was a race of aboriginals known as the Arawaks. Within fifty years of European contact, the people had been killed through a combination of disease and state-sponsored murder by what was to be later known as the conquistadors. You won't find any Arawaks anymore.

The Spanish second objective was never achieved. Gold was never discovered, probably hidden away by the last of the natives. This was probably a big let-down for the Spanish and they never really did much else on the island. No real big settlement was formed during the Spanish occupation, for there were no non-Christians left to convert and there was little space for farming. They actually abandoned the colony in the middle of the 18th century, leaving behind mostly empty island chain, thousands of dead and some wrecked ships in the shallows.

The islands were left empty until they were given to the British in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, after Spain lost the Seven Years War, in exchange for keeping some colonies in North America. At that point, the British had no use for the Islands, much like in North America with Quebec and opened it up to "so called" private endeavours. This ended up splitting the previously one colony into four. The northernmost and middle islands would be turned into separate colonies and the southern island split into two.

The southern colonies were settled by the Puritans, who by then had established colonies within the Thirteen Colonies in North America. It would make sense that those from the already established colonies of Massachusetts and Rhode Island would be well informed and trained on how to survive in a frontier environment. This was not the case. The colonists were met with hostile animal life, constant storms and bad weather. However, they remained on the island. Not many people know why exactly, it seems they had it real tough. If I was in their position, I would have probably left.

By the time reports of the colonies reached London in the mid-19th century, the southern Island had been well populated. Cities and towns popped up all over the southern Island alongside new farms and mines. The middle island had been converted into a naval port, for the British fleet, due to its natural harbour on its east side. It was all working out amazing. Even the North Island was leased back to the Dutch for their trade fleet, and the previously abandoned harbour was rebuilt. It was all doing fine until the report of 1837.

This was the defining moment in the history of the Isles, more important than anything that had happened previously. What it was, was a written report by the governor of the island written to the King and parliament back in the nerve center of the empire. The report was on the development of the islands. Nothing exciting there, but what caught the attention of everyone seated in government that day was the mention of the ecological system on the island.

Regardless of what it actually said, the parliament decided to cut ties with the colony. Citing "moral and ethical misconduct", the naval base was shut down, and all previous records of the colony were burned. The colony was shunned; it was taken off the maps. The head of the Church of England denounced it as being one of the most "ungodly" places in the world and was quoted saying "The fauna of the islands are of the most queer and blasphemous nature and must never contaminate the race of man". A few years later Darwin, when he was allowed to visit called it "the most deviant and highly unusual places on earth". In fact, it proved beyond a doubt all of his preconceived ideas that he had gathered on the Galapagos. In short, everything that was alive on the island was in direct conflict with religious text. In a sense, no one wanted to believe that anything rivalled man's intelligence.

The colony was obviously forgotten and any person with religious or scientific connects often worked to destroy all records. Maps after that were drawn without ever mentioning the three islands at 180 degrees longitude and 40 degrees North latitude... and so it remained that way.

Years passed. The people of the islands forgot the outside world. Eventually England did as well and the islands were given to Japan, unceremoniously in the early 20th century.

Japan continued the trend of keeping the settlers isolated while supplying the islands with many technologies and manufactured goods (Which were carefully disguised as being manufactured on the Isles by Sliph Company). They basically used the islands as a cash cow, with Japanese companies being the only supplier of goods to an entire country. Heck, they even used the islands as a base for a kids show and video game series, unknown to the people living there.

All of this was too much for me. The chances of each event in this so-called history of the islands happening and to the extent they did was like a million to one. Was it fate that these were perhaps the last undisturbed pieces of what once was, and what could have been? I did not know then.

"Hey, is that you David?" someone asked from behind me, rather loudly so he could be heard over the sound of the waves hitting against the bow. I turned quickly to see who it was; surprised that someone else had been awake at the hour. It was Jake.

Jake Brennan was the kind of person who was rich, yet never really acted like it. He was the son of the President and CEO of Poketech, the second largest industrial firm on the isles. Jake was a few years younger than I was, probably in his mid-teens. He was also part of the program and he was given the task of getting me off of the ship and to the Polytechnic without me getting lost and ending up in the wrong city before the orientation even started. Also, it was good to have someone to talk to about what life would be like there for the next month.

"Yes, it's me." I replied, tired.

"So what brings you out here so late at night?" he implored, walking across the deck towards where I was leaning over the side. "Couldn't sleep?"

I nodded an affirmative, transfixed by the ocean in front of me. "I guess neither could you then." I replied jokingly.

"Yes" was all he said and stood in silence for a bit. I just remembered then, I had to return his book he leant me.

"This book," I started, lifting the book out of my pocket "has to be the biggest bunch of garbage ever perpetrated by..." I looked closer at the name of the publisher. "The government of the United Islands." I said the last six words much quieter than the rest.

"Everything in that book is true." he said, taking back the history book he gave me earlier in the evening. "It was written especially for the program. Did you get through it?"

I shook my head; I had not finish reading through most of the modern history section.

"Then, you should probably keep this as a reference then, just in case someone asks you a question about something modern, like what a pokeball is."

"Yeah, what is that?" I asked earnestly.

He simply smiled and handed the book back to me. "It's something you should probably get to know." He said the sentence as if he were explaining it to a kid who didn't understand something that they should.

"You get an odd feeling when you find something out that you thought couldn't possibly be true."

"It's what I felt like when I found there was something else other than the islands I thought to be the known world. Also it's probably what everyone on that island would feel if they were allowed to be a part of the program. I don't even know what I am going to explain to everybody."

It really must have been hard on him, he seemed disconnected from the world. This was very different than the Jake that had come to pick me up from the harbour in Victoria. He was normally full of energy, now it seemed that his battery had run out.

"So, people on the islands think that the world is only comprised of their islands and nothing else?" I asked, after a while.

"Kind of. Most don't really know, or don't really care. Others speculate wildly, but there is a strict travel ban so no one really knows what to even begin to think is out there. Needless to say, I won't be able to explain where or how long I was gone. Some might think that I should have fallen off a corner of the world or something..."

"But you didn't." I interrupted, turning to face him. "You found an entirely new world."

"I guess..." was all his reply, his eyes moving out to sea, distant.

"Hey, cheer up." I said, not knowing what else to say. "Just try to focus on what's ahead."

"Yeah, I just need some sleep," he answered, before making his way back to the cabins. "And you should too. I don't want to be dragging you to Jubilife City."

With his last comment before retiring, I could sense that he was not completely a wreck over the whole experience. Perhaps by tomorrow, it would all blow over and by some stroke of luck, the world as we knew it would be back the way it was with both our little worlds still intact. However, I knew with little thought that by tomorrow morning, I would end up in the last place I thought I would; Sinnoh.


	2. Unauthorized City Guide

The red LED lights of the clock-radio were the only thing visible in my stateroom. They pierced the black fog that was the room to display the time, which was 8:47 in the morning. The eerie red lights broke my sleep that had only begun a few hours earlier.

Glancing over to the left, I realized that everything was the way I had left it when I boarded the ship the night before, with all of the items that I would be bringing along with me stacked in a row against the wall. All of which would be sent to the polytechnic by air, after I disembarked from the Kingfisher. I didn't know at the time what they meant by air as the United Islands did not have an air force or even an airport for that matter. All I knew then was that my possessions would be arriving by tomorrow, except my hiking pack.

I reached over to the clock and unplugged it from the wall beside my bed, ending the light which had awakened me. In the darkness, I lay on my back staring up at the non-illuminated ceiling, thinking about what had gotten me to this point in my life. How did I come to be here?

I then reminded myself of the night before, and then remembered what I had thought of and discussed with Jake. This brought back even more questions, which made me realize that I would not be able to fall back asleep. My mind was too active, too busy thinking.

A knock came from the outside of my door.

"Who's there?" I called out, very groggily.

"It's about time you got up." a voice answered. "The ship is leaving again in half an hour and you need to vacate the ship." he used the word vacate as if it were written off a page like it was normal procedure. I could only guess it was one of the ship's crew.

"Vacate the ship..." I thought to myself. That could only mean one thing. That we had landed in Canalave City, Sinnoh. Canalave City was the jewel of the United Island's coastal settlements and the place where Europeans first came to the islands. It was no wonder why it was; the town was supposed to still be stunningly maintained, as beautiful as when it was first built over four hundred years ago. The city would be the beginning of the trek across country to Jubilife with Jake.

Suddenly, I could not take just sitting in the room. In one motion I rolled off of my bed and slipped on a pair of khakis and a t-shirt. The excitement was unbearable.

The door opened to a warm pacific breeze. It was the kind that was ever so close to being tropical while still retaining the feel of a temperate humid climate. A kind of rainforest level of humidity was created by the spray off of the ocean.

I moved towards the side balcony, almost mechanically. My feet moved by themselves for I was too transfixed by the sight I was taking. The forests, the sky, the ocean and the city itself sparkled as though it were a gem inside of a box of blue velvet and illuminated by the sun that had begun to rise in the East.

"Wow" was all I could think. I had never seen a place as beautiful as this, so undisturbed by industry and pollution. It was so transfixing that I forgot that I wasn't wearing shoes on the deck that was still frozen from the last night's voyage. In fact, I didn't think of anything other than what was in front of me.

_This is why I came here._

"Enjoying the view?" inquired someone to the side of me. It was Jake who was fully dressed in hiking attire, with a backpack at his side.

"Yes" was all that I could reply. My mind was simply not in dialogue mode, but rather in deep thought.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he stated rhetorically. He knew that I was really taken in by the city. "I can show you around if you'd like."

"Really?" I asked, turning around and becoming overjoyed at the proposition. "Are you sure we have time?"

He smiled. "Sure we do, we don't have to be in Jubilife for like three days."

"Great, I'll get my stuff quickly." I replied as I ran back into the stateroom.

"Just remember to keep that history book out; you'll probably need it at some point."

"Thanks for reminding me." I affirmed, taking the book that he had given back to me the night before out of my backpack and putting it in my shirt pocket. I really hoped that I would not have to pull it out to reference it, I could just imagine the look on somebody's face when I didn't have a clue what a potion was. That, I did know from studying the book. Hopefully I remembered everything else.

With the handbook on my person, I gathered the rest of the things that I would be taking along in my pack. An extra set of clothes, trail mix, some books and a sleeping bag just in case of an emergency. With it all taking up most of the room, I left the rest of the stuff piled against the wall close to the door for the government chartered pilots to retrieve it.

I was about to leave the room, but then I stared back into it. The cabin was just an ordinary cabin, nothing else. Yet something made me stare into it. I was subconsciously thinking of how this was potentially the last normal area that I would see for the next month. Whatever was out there, I would not be ready for it as much as someone who first stepped on the moon was ready for it.

_Here goes nothing._

We walked down the gangplank, joining the ship to the port. A small group of people were waiting patiently at the bottom, probably waiting for some news as to where the ship had just traveled from.

Correction, there were some people were there at the bottom of the gangplank as well as something else.

_What the hell?_

There was a blue creature around four feet tall standing among the crowd. It had two small arms and a flat black tail not unlike that of a beaver. It had four small legs, which supported it off of the ground. From the way the light shone off of it, you could immediately tell that it was covered by the skin of an amphibian. In short, it looked like a crushed blue-dyed Gumby.

I couldn't stop gawking at it. I could not tell if I was somehow having some sort of hallucination or if it was actually a species of animal on the archipelago.

Luckily, before bringing more attention to myself, I was tapped on the shoulder. Looking back to see what he wanted, Jake slowly moved a solitary finger up to his lips in an effort to keep me quiet.

He's trying to tell me to stay calm. Is this a normal occurrence here seeing blue blob-like humanoids just standing around minding their own business. I was puzzled; he would definitely have to explain this later.

"Come on Wobbuffet." a feminine voice cajoled, "We have to get the groceries home before lunch."

"Wobbuffet!" came the creature's reply, almost as if it were saying "Yes sir!" to an invisible drill sergeant. He obediently helped carry two large paper bags overflowing with food items on its shoulders, if you could call them shoulders that is.

We walked in silence for a moment along the sea wall that separated the city with the beach. When we were out of earshot of the people we had just passed I piped up.

"Wobbuffet?" I asked in a surprised tone, trying to figure out what I had just encountered.

"What are you trying to do? Imitate it?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well..." I stammered.

"I'm just messing with you." he replied, kindlier than before. "The thing you just saw was a pokemon and it was real and no, you are not losing your marbles. They're somewhat like the animals that inhabit your continent except pokemon are much more intelligent, which makes them way more interesting as companions. Some can even talk."

"Really?" I asked excitedly.

"Yeah really." he replied as if it were nothing. His reaction was like me reacting to him getting excited over cable television.

"Wow." was all I could say.

_I seem to be using that expression a lot lately!_

"Now I promised you a tour of here, and judging by your reaction to a Wobbuffet, you probably will be ecstatic over what I am going to show you next." he stated. "I do intend to ensure it."

He did keep his promise as we walked through the town by the sea. It was quite a sight. He showed me the National Library; it was a beautiful 3-storey Victorian era mansion which housed some of the oldest documents in the region including the original 1836 report on the islands, which was hidden from the public for good measure. In fact, lots of information in the library was censored, to hide knowledge of anything outside of the island chain. For instance the novel "Island" by Aldous Huxley was censored so that the protagonist had been from Olivine City instead of being a Londoner. Instead of being disgusted at such suppression of literature, I rather was amused.

The path from the Library passed through the west side of the city. Jake pointed out all of the buildings in the town. From the Gym to the Pokemart and I was shown the entire city. We finally stopped at the Pokemon Center.

"Well, here is the Pokemon Center." he informed as he pointed at the sign that designated it as such, "It's not much to look at but the centers are one of the most important buildings in any settlement. They act as hospitals, hotels and meeting grounds for travellers and their pokemon."

"I see" I affirmed.

"They also hold pokemon for you when you are away; I have to retrieve one myself."

"You own pokemon?" I asked.

"Well..." he stuttered. "They're not really mine. There my father's and are on loan so that we can get to Jubilife."

"What do you mean by 'so that we can get to Jubilife'?" I interjected.

"A bridge is out in between there and Canalave." he explained as we walked into the building, "Something has to get us across."

_And how big is this pokemon if it's __going to get us across a river?_

My thoughts were met by the imposing revolving doors to the Center. They pushed you into a large rotunda emblazoned with the pokeball logo imprinted like a mosaic in the floor. Two grand staircases flanked the reception desk and led upstairs to what I would guess were the hotel rooms. Everywhere there were people chatting with each other, pokemon were out too. I had never seen such an assortment of them, and then again I had only seen a few up until that point.

"Can I help you?" asked a clerk behind the front desk. She was wearing the pokemon center uniform and had a pin of a pokeball clipped to her right shirt pocket.

"Yes, thanks" answered Jake quickly. "I'm here to pick up a pokemon in storage for Brennan."

"Just a second." she said as she looked beneath the desk and flipped through several large folders designed to hold pokeballs. She found what she was looking for. "Brennan was it?"

"Yes"

"Oh, good. Your Lapras has just arrived by air yesterday." she said, before handing the creature holding device over to her customer.

_What do these people mean by air? They have no freaking planes, nor helicopters nor anything that can even rise more than several feet above the ground. Whatever, I'll probably just eventually find out some__how. I didn't want to sound like an idiot and ask someone._

Jake thanked her and we were about to leave when she called out to us from across the room. We walked back over to the counter.

"I forgot to ask you guys, but could we interest you in adopting a pokemon?" she asked. I was against it at first, as there was probably a fee or something. Plus I didn't have the required licence.

"No thanks." Jake said as he turned to leave once more.

"Hey, wait just a second." I objected. I still wanted to think about it, plus I had many questions. "How much will it cost to adopt one? This is my first one."

Before she could answer, Jake interrupted. "Are you sure about this David? Taking on a pokemon is a huge responsibility."

_He sounded worse than my mother when I __wanted to get a puppy for my seventh birthday._

"I think I can handle it." I replied. I had taken care of animals in the past; including the puppy I got for my eighth birthday (My parents eventually gave in after a year of me constantly asking them.)

"In that case, I can be happy to tell you that it is free at the moment." the worker answered. "We're having trouble holding them all here at the center."

"Great, which species do you have?"

"Just let me check..." she trailed off as she glanced over at a computer and typed a few words into the keyboard. "At the moment we only have 52 different kinds."

_Did she just say fifty-two? How many are there?_

"One that I can most suggest as a starter pokemon would be this Rattata." she informed, indicating the screen.

"What's a Rattata?" I asked quickly. Not really thinking about what I had just said.

"Did you just ask what a Rattata is?"The clerk asked, very surprised. This was exactly the question that I tried to avoid asking by reading the handbook the day before.

"No, he said 'what's that rattle?'." Jake replied rapidly with a fake laugh. "I can assure you that it's just the radiator over there. You might want to get maintenance to look into that. It might cause a fire."

The woman behind the desk looked at me once and then at Jake, probably deciding which one of us was more nuts. She wasn't buying it. "Right..." she eventually said to break the silence.

"Anyways," I continued, trying to get to the point. "Do you have any that can speak?" I remembered what Jake had said earlier about different species of pokemon. It would have been nice to have a companion who could talk when I reached the collegiate.

"We do not have any at the moment but we do have one that will evolve into one that can talk, it's a Natu."

"Great, I'll take that one." I stated, not waiting for her to explain anything more about the pokemon. Jake at the time rolled his eyes at me, thinking that I was probably the most impulsive person on the planet.

"Okay then, just sign this sheet and I will go and get your pokemon." she instructed as she passed me a slip of paper filled with spaces to write personal information. I just used the Polytechnic's address as my home address and filled out the rest of it as if it were any signup sheet back where I used to live.

She came back with a red and white orb, which I recognised as a pokeball. The pseudo-nurse handed me the ball without looking and replaced it in her hand with my form.

"So you're David Wilson, Age 17." she asked.

I nodded.

"5 foot 8, 150 pounds and native of Jubilife City."

"Correct." I answered.

"You're good to go now, just wait to open the pokeball for the first time. The Natu may be disorientated as he hasn't been out of one of those in something like five years."

_Wow, five years in one of those. That must have sucked._

"I'll make sure of it." I promised. "Thanks." She nodded and returned to her job helping other customers. I made sure that I thanked Jake for saving me with his quick line when we left. He informed me that we were almost done his tour of the city, and then I would be able to release the pokemon that I had just received.

"There is still one last place I have to go before we leave." Jake stated as we walked to the edge of town, where the previously beautiful architecture of the city gave way to what would be best clichéd as a seedy underbelly.

"Really? Where?"

"I actually can't tell you."

"Why?" I asked.

"It's actually kind of illegal here."

_What kind of illegal? Some drug ring? Counterfeiting? All seemed unlikely for Jake._

I stared at him for a second, not knowing what to ask as to not seem awkward. Jake noticed this and subliminally answered my question.

"Maybe I should just show you." he said. "Just follow me very closely."

Before I could process what he had just told me he had taken off in the direction of a side street.

"Wait up!" I yelled over to him. He just laughed it off and continued down the avenue. I kept up as best I could. I wasn't the athletic type and Jake looked like he could run a marathon without a fuss.

I followed him through what looked to be like the worst neighbourhood in Canalave. Old neon signs sparked on and off every few seconds on the large apartment buildings that flanked our route. The words written by the bended cylinders of coloured gas were unknown to me as I was running too fast. We finally turned off of the row of brick buildings and down an even seedier alley, filled with degenerates and BFI bins.

_This better not turn into something dangerous._

The alley ended in a dead stop in between three sides of a graffiti-stained apartment.

_Now we get mugged._

"Here it is" the person who I had been following announced. He pointed to a sign that was written in what I could guess was Japanese. It was old, dirty and stained yellow from rain running down the front of it. Underneath it was an average non-descript door.

"Here what is?" I panted, just catching up to him.

"It is one of the reasons why I was allowed to go into the program." he explained, while opening the door.

"Hello, who's there?" asked a thickly accented elderly voice.

"It's me, Jake." he answered. He obviously knew him on a first name basis.

"Well come in." Jake said to me, as I was standing outside in the alley. I agreed, not wanting really to find out what was inside.

I was pleasantly surprised by the room. The room was small and packed to the ceiling with boxes of what could be described as the oddest assortment of imports. All of course were illegal due to the restrictive isolation laws. Coca-Cola machines flanked the entrance. A bookcase of Japanese manga comic books imposed on a small desk which was occupied by an older Japanese man who I could guess was the proprietor.

"So who did you bring with you?" he asked casually towards Jake, placing a paper

"Just a friend," Jake replied. "He can be trusted as he is a foreigner as well."

"Oh really," the man began raising an eyebrow. "That's surprising, they haven't let anyone else in for the long time." he looked flustered for a second. "Wait, where are my manners? Most people call me Mr. Yamada." he extended his hand to introduce himself.

"Nice to meet you." I replied, shaking his hand.

"As you can see," he explained. "We get most of our products from outside of the country. Most of which are illegal here, though you are probably used to them where you live." he trailed off before returning to reading his newspaper. I would learn later that I was the first person he had met on the island that was not born there.

_Amusing, drinking Pepsi is a felony here._

The shelves that criss-crossed the makeshift store were filled with what you would expect to find in a corner store somewhere in small town America. Plus there were some local goods that were probably hard to come by. "I've got what I came for." informed Jake, holding up several bottles of cola.

"I'm pretty much done here as well." I replied when something caught the corner of my eye. A glint of silver sparkled from the bottom of one of the shelves that held rare local items. "Hold on a second."

I picked up what was causing the light to shine in my direction. It turned out that it was actually two different items. What they were surprised me greatly. I had not seen anything like them ever, in history books, museums or television. What I was holding in my hands were two bracers, much like ones that are used by archers. The difference between these ones and the common type of bracers was that these ones was that the ones I held had two rounded pyramid-shaped metal pieces jutting out where the back of your wrist met the cloth it was made of. It probably would have been impractical for archery due to that. Plus in archery you would only wear one.

"What do you have there?" asked Jake who had walked over to where I was and was looking at the bracers.

"I really don't know" I admitted.

"Hey, Mr. Yamada." called Jake over to the proprietor. "Do you know what these are?"

The man put on his pair of pince-nez and glanced over in our direction, squinting to see what Jake was talking about. He instantly recognized the product.

"Oh, what you are holding is a replica Lucario bracer." he explained. "It was made over a hundred years ago in the ancient style based upon older examples."

"Sorry, that made no sense to me."

"I guess it would not." he muttered. "It took me a long time to get used to this place. So to explain it in simpler terms, what is in your hands is a human reproduction of a Pokémon's defence weapon. The creatures called the Lucario have one of those spikes on each arm, and use them to defend themselves from predators. Humans have always been fascinated in the species and when the Europeans came to the islands and they built these out of respect for the species. The one you are holding now was made a century after the last original was made and was meant for a museum in Britain, before the report."

"Interesting..." I looked them over again with a newfound sense of fascination with them. I was always a sucker for buying items of historical significance. "How much do you want for them?"

"Ahh..." He smiled. "I pick out that you like history, I can always tell. When I moved to the island, I was fascinated the same way." He turned my way. "You are interested aren't you?"

"Yes, of course I am." I answered truthfully.

"Good." he said. "I've had that in my shop for years. It's yours for only 200."

I knew he was probably making a generous offer, with the artefact being in such good condition after a hundred years. The only problem was that I was nearly broke; I had barely more than ten islander dollars. I really didn't want to seem like I wasn't interested.

"I..." I was about to say that I was not able to afford what Mr. Yamada was offering when I felt something touch the back of my hand. It felt like paper. I glanced behind me to see Jake was behind me and when I turned my face to see him, he nodded not wanting to see me embarrass myself. Realizing it was the money to pay for the bracers, I changed what I was about to say.

"I'll take it." I said with a smile. I knew it was nothing to Jake to lend me the money, but I felt really grateful, that money would definitely be paid back.

"Good choice." the elderly man answered.

It was of course kind of dumb to have a cash register system in the store that deposited receipts or kept records of customers, so Mr. Yamada just took the money and put it in his front shirt pocket.

"You have a good day now!" he called out to us as we were about to leave.

"Oh, we will." I replied back. "Thanks again." He merely smiled and refocused his eyes on his newspaper, happy for having our business.

"..And thank you Jake." I continued when we left the store. "I'll pay you back as soon as I can." When I made a promise I would keep it, even if I had to get a full time job in Jubilife.

"It's not a big deal." he replied, peeling the label off of a Pepsi bottle and stuffing it in his pocket. "Would you like a Pepsi?"

"Sure" he handed to me. "Thanks." I said as I received it.

"It's not a big deal." he repeated what he had said seconds earlier. I removed the label like he did and in that moment, I realized how great it would be to travel across country with him as I knew we would become quick friends.


	3. Three Introductions

A semi-cool breeze swept past the roadside, indicating that summer had not yet come. It was April on the island and as it was in the Northern Hemisphere, it was springtime. The scenery was beautiful. Plants had already started to sport flowers and many more had unopened buds that would surely add even more colour to the place in the coming months. The temperature was less than what it would be in summer, though it was warmer than what I have become accustomed to back home. I could only imagine how hot it would be soon.

We had been walking for an hour or two in this weather towards Jubilife City and the Polytechnic. The journey so far had been uneventful and the only thing major that occurred was us spotting a few pokemon on the sides of the road. Jake assured me that they were just common rats and such, but something about them fascinated me. To Jake it was like being fascinated over a refrigerator.

That intrigue made me think more about the pokemon that I had just received earlier in the day. I remember the nurse calling it a Natu. I had asked Jake what it was but he didn't know. Apparently it was endemic to one of the other islands that he had not visited. I was tempted to open the container that was holding the pokemon but the high number of people who kept coming out of nowhere and asking us to battle with our pokemon kept me from doing so. Due to Jake not wanting to endanger his Dad's Lapras and I not wanting to risk sending in my sure-to-be-weak pokemon, we had to keep our pokeballs hidden from potential challengers.

After walking for several minutes without seeing anyone else, I decided to finally open my pokeball. I removed it from my pocket. "Do you think that it's safe to let my pokemon out here?" I asked.

Jake looked around. We were in an open field to the side of the road. The short, almost trimmed-looking grass allowed us to see for kilometres. He nodded. "Sure, why not?"

There had to be a reason for it to empty at a time of day like this. It was somewhere halfway to Jubilife and right in the middle of route 218. All day, we had passed tons of travellers just like us on the road and now there was this huge empty space with no one other than us in it. Something seemed awry.

"Okay then." I said, pulling the ball out of my pack.

_Now, just to figure out how to open the damn thing._

I studied the sphere, holding it up to the sun to try to figure out if there was any writing on it that would indicate how to use it. I wondered why they didn't hand out an instruction manual along with the ball for first time users, but then again, I hadn't grown up surrounded by the culture of using them. It might have been like using a computer mouse. Knowledge of its operation must have been common knowledge.

_Wait, there was writing on it!_

There was small, size six print written on the bottom red section of the ball. Straining to read what was written, I recognized the word "Release", with a small indent where there was small button embedded on the orb. Normally, it would have been not out of place on a calculator or Mp3 player to reset the device. Here it was probably not used for its normal function.

I took a pen out of my pocket and was about to insert it into the indent, thinking that I would let out the pocket monster when Jake interrupted my action.

"Wait! What the hell are you doing?" Jake grabbed the pen out of my hand with ease.

"What was that for?" I asked, kind of agitated.

"Well, why were you going to get rid of your pokemon? Numbskull!"

"I wasn't." I answered.

Jake looked at me for a second in a moment of disbelief. I didn't know what I was doing wrong, and him standing like that mad my ignorance of what was going on just made the situation worse. I thought he was just going to look at me forever before he surrendered his face to his palm.

"You don't know how to use a pokeball... do you?" he muttered through his fingers.

"No." I admitted. I really didn't want to show myself being ignorant of any pieces of the guidebook that I had neglected to read to completion.

"Sorry, then." Jake said with a sigh. "It's just when you press that button, the pokemon is released for good. Forever! You won't be able to recapture it."

"Oh..." I mumbled, just realizing then how close I was to doing something really stupid.

"Here, you just press the white button down once to expand it." he explained, taking the ball and pressing the center button and allowing it to expand to its full size, before handing the ball right back to me. "You just push the center button again to open the ball."

"Thanks." I said, accepting both the advice and the pokeball back from him.

I was afraid to open the pokeball, unsure of what would come out of it. Would it be some sort of juvenile of the Natu species and I would have to take care of it? I doubted that I would know how to care for it. Would it be some sort of hideous beast and would it try to kill us? A dozen thoughts ran through my mind.

"Now is as good a time as any!" Jake said half sarcastically and half jokingly, breaking the silence that my thoughts left on the conversation.

I pressed the button.

The ball began to shudder in my hands, giving off a slight electric charge that I could feel flowing through my fingers. It began to open forcefully, the top part folding back and hitting the palm of my hand. A red light that came from inside the device blinded me for a moment, which made me rely on my other senses to understand what was going on in my hands.

A slight disturbance in the air pressure pushed against my arm, trying to force it down, but I held it steady. When the force eased on my arm, the light also died down, focusing on a single point in the field which allowed my vision to return. On the place where the light focused, a figure began to appear, however small. It looked like we were on one of those old Star Trek television shows where people were beamed aboard the Enterprise.

_I can't believe I just made that reference._

When the light cleared from view, what I saw was a small bird pokemon. It was around fifteen centimetres tall and reminded me of a tropical finch. It was one of those birds that would appear in National Geographic nature specials except the one that I had was a species that I had never seen before.

The bird was of a round shape, with a short beak and stubby wings. It had green plumage with a singular red feather protruding from its head. Its wings and tail were of the same crimson hue as its head feather was.

After seeing what looked to be a sea serpent at the pokemon center, I was glad that I wasn't looking into the eyes of some vicious beast but instead those of a small animal that by no means could eat me.

Those eyes... The Natu's eyes had an odd quality to them. Unlike other bird's eyes, they were oddly human looking with large blue irises. They kept staring at me in an almost trance-like state. The effect wasn't on me, as I myself was not hypnotised by them, but rather on the bird itself. It was fixated on me, and I on it.

"Well, that pokemon is really useful. I can't imagine why it was left at the Pokecenter." Jake broke the silence, with a touch of sarcasm. "You two can stare at each other while I figure out where to go from here." He sat down on a nearby log, took a large city map out of his backpack and unfolded it, locating where we were.

"Now, why are you doing this?" I quietly said to myself, in reference to the bird. Upon hearing this, it shook its head side to side. Its eyes refocused afterwards, not locked onto me but into a more tranquil state. It blinked a few times, which was a good sign. At least it wasn't blind.

...

_What was that? Did someone say something?_

_ ..._

I actually couldn't hear anything in particular but I was able to sense things sent almost telepathically to me. What I felt was a feeling of warmness, of kindness and of happiness. It was odd, as it also felt as though it was transplanted in me like a horticulturist branding a branch of a tree to another tree in order to produce a new type of fruit.

While this was going on, the little finch had managed to hop the few yards between myself and the place where he had been beamed from the pokeball and in a few jumps he had carefully climbed up my khakis and onto my shoulder. He managed to grasp my shirt without even making the smallest of scratches on my skin underneath.

...

He nuzzled his beak against the side of my neck lovingly as if saying thank you. I gave it a small pat on the head, and turned to face the bird. "I don't know if you can understand me." I began. "But, I just wanted you to know that I won't do the same thing your old owner did. I won't make to go back into that ball."

...

The feeling this time was much stronger, more powerful. It was strong enough almost to make me lose my balance and fall over. I wondered if it were normal or not for me to be picking up on these signals, which were obviously coming from the Natu. I could certainly tell that he understood what I was saying, even though he was unable to speak himself.

The emotional barrage began to die down after a few seconds. I think that he must have thoroughly thanked me. "Do you want to stay on my shoulder?" I asked. I don't believe that he was able to control what he had just done, as he couldn't answer with an affirmative or negative. He however answered with actions and kept his claws deeply dug into my t-shirt. "Fine by me."

I walked over to Jake, the Natu keeping its balance on my shoulder.

"So, did you win the staring contest?" We both laughed. The Natu gave off another one of its psychic bursts, almost as if it was laughing as well.

"Did you just feel that?" Jake asked, rubbing his forehead.

"Yeah, I think I did too. Is that normal for a pokemon to do something like that?" I asked. Jake was now studying the bird, looking at it to try to determine why it was able to cause such a disturbance in his thought patterns. The bird simply stared at him.

"If you try..." I began but was cut off by a loud noise. It truly sounded like the felling of trees, the sound they made when they hit the ground. I was stunned for a second, trying to figure out where it came from. Looking left to right, I found that there were in fact no logging operations in the area.

"What was that?" Jake turned to me, unknowing of what was going on. The sound occurred again but this time it was much louder, much closer. Jake looked at me with pleading in his eyes, scared. At that moment, I realized what the noise was. Damn it, why didn't I recognize it sooner.

"Get down, right now." I yelled at Jake, physically dragging him down with me as I hit the deck. Crack! A scream, which could have only been Jake, followed the last noise. His body hit the ground with a thud. Why didn't I catch on sooner?

"Jake, Jake are you alright?" I desperately asked, trying to get him to answer a response as he lay face down in the grass. For a moment, I thought he was dead, but he slowly turned to face the sky again. Crack! The shooter fired again, but missed.

"Ah, what happened to my leg?" he gasped, clutching his leg in one hand and supporting his body off of the ground in the other. Blood trickled out of the wound on his body.

"Oh no." I muttered, looking closer at the injury. It was definitely a gunshot wound, one that had hit right in the thigh. The pain must have been immense, but Jake just squinted his eyes and smirked to try to bear the pain. "Just keep quiet." he stated, trying to keep his message short to not break the concentration it took to keep himself from not passing out.

I nodded in agreement; whatever was out there was out there to kill us. It would probably be a good idea to keep a low profile on the grass to attempt to conceal ourselves from our assailant. Jake was probably thinking the same thing and made no attempt to move from where he had fallen.

The gunfire stopped abruptly.

_Great, now they're coming to look for us._

For a moment there, we lay still on the ground. The Natu had hopped off of my shoulder and was trying to calm down Jake who was now able to restrain himself a bit. His breathing had become quieter; now allowing me to hear what was around us.

I could hear no one approach us, but I didn't want to risk my hide and look to see if there was anyone actually coming nearer to us. So we lay up against the fallen tree, waiting, hoping for a way out. Not wanting to make a sound, we remained silent and only our heavy breathing was an indication of anyone being in the clearing. It was like that until I heard something in the distance. A slow painful moan, of a person injured. The voice was recognisably female and for sure human, not an animal. The sound was spread by the acoustics of the field, being open echoed the quietest sound.

I looked over to Jake, who looked back at me with a face that acknowledged that he heard the voice too. "Whoever that is, they're in the same boat as us." he managed to whisper through gritted teeth.

"I know." I replied, quietly. I could tell where the person was, due to the first place where the echo bounced, so I could definitely find her. If I went and ran across the field, I risked myself getting shot at again. An Imaginary debate raged in my head.

_But if I was in that position..._

If I left, Jake would be defenceless if they discovered where we were.

_And what would I do if I stayed?_

What would I do once I reached the person?

_What could I do from here?_

"I know what you're thinking, and I'd advise against it." He seized for a second. The Natu sent out another calming emotion, attempting to stop Jake's pain. It subsided and he gained control of his voice "But, since I need a diversion anyways to call the police department."

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to keep my voice down.

"I need you to draw their attention while I crawl over and grab my cell phone out of my backpack."

I nodded, more wanting to help out the person stranded on the other side of the road than create a distraction. It felt as though I had to. I made up my mind; I was going to run for it. And I did.

I bolted down the most direct line to where I thought the person was. I didn't know I could move as fast as I could then, but then again I had never been shot at before. In fact, just as I thought that, the shooting picked up again.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Bullets whizzed by at supersonic speeds, nearly missing me on multiple occasions. There was no way for me to protect myself from the hail but to run as fast as I could, and pray that the person firing at me kept missing.

The final few steps were agony as my body was telling my brain that it could not keep up the pace I was at, while my brain was telling my muscles that if I didn't keep it up, I would be killed. Naturally, it was not pleasant. I actually lost my footing in one of my last strides to the other side of the road and flew face first into a ravine. After cart wheeling a few times, I came to rest against a tree in what appeared to be a drainage ditch, used to collect water that had run off of the road. I had found the third victim.

I tried to refocus my eyes, after they were clouded by the force my fall. When my eyes began to see properly, I looked over to the person I had ran to.

_Whoa, wasn't expecting that!_

When you least expect it, the most odd turn of events can occur. Even though what had already occurred was a shock, what stunned me even more was the sight of who was sitting across from me. She was propped up against the muddy flank of the gravel road, clutching an arm. Blood seemed to stain her blue fur, giving it a purple colour.

_A bipedal fox? How strange._

What gave away what type of creature she was were the spikes on both of her arms which were identical to the ones that protruded from the bracers that I had received earlier in the day. The only difference was that hers' were a white colour while the artificial ones were of some metallic substance like steel. I could have taken in more of what she looked like, but at the time I was too concerned about how she was doing. The Lucario looked like a mess; she had a mud stain across her chest. She was wearing a torn-up shirt and an old pair of jeans with the knees ripped through them. She had what looked like two bullet wounds in her upper arm, and one in the upper leg. The creature was losing a lot of blood.

The Lucario saw me and tried to move away, shifting her body weight onto her legs and trying to stand and failed miserably. She was definitely scared of me. I tried to calm her down.

"It's okay. I'm here to help." I said, hoping that she could understand me. "Where are you hurt?"

The creature looked at me for a few moments, as if to determine if I was actually meaning what I said or if I was associated with the ones that had caused her harm. I tried to look the part of a good guy.

"On my arm here and here, as well as on my leg." She weakly replied. I could tell she had lost a lot of blood volume, leading to muscle weakness and almost the inability to speak. It was expected, as the Lucario could only cover two of her wounds with her paws.

"Here, you need to keep pressure on those wounds, or you will bleed out." I reached for my backpack, which I had unknowingly carried with me on my dash to the ravine.

It actually turned out better that I had brought it along, as I had some water and some clothes, which in a pinch could be turned into makeshift bandages. "Can you hold still for a second? This may hurt a bit." I asked, getting a bottle of water out of my pack and ripping one of my shirts into strips.

"How can I really trust you?" She asked, with a touch of fear but was too tired to make much of an effort to object.

"Well," I said, pouring some water on one of the cloth strips. "I just ran all the way over here from the centre of the field over there, through gunfire just to help the person over here."

"But you didn't find a human over here." She winced as I wrapped the bandage around one of the wounds in her arm.

"I found you, and you still needed help."

She was about to open her mouth to object to my last statement, probably not used to needing help from weak humans like myself. She caught herself from saying what she was about to say. "True."

"So, why would you need to be untrusting of me then?" I asked, attending to the other section of arm and trying to look as kind as I could.

"Well, don't you want to capture me?" she asked seriously. "Most humans would want to."

"Now why would I do that?"

"To make Lucarios like me fight in competitions. Or more specifically, since I am a female, to breed. Are you just helping me so you can force me to do that?"

"That's terrible." I exclaimed. "Why would anyone want to do that?" I was really shocked by what she said and also troubled. Was it legal for that stuff to happen here? I could understand dog breeders but this creature was intelligent. It made me sick to think that people could do something like that to something that could keep up an active conversation with them.

"Most people want to." She said, keeping pressure on the last bullet wound that I had not yet cleaned yet. "I find it strange that you wouldn't want to."

"I think you will find that I am different from all the people around here." I replied, placing the last of the bandages on her leg. "I could not force a sentient person to do something like that."

"Thanks for the complement."

"Which complement?"

"You just called me sentient, free thinking. It's the general belief that pokemon are just dumb animals that only talk for getting what they need. A lot of humans think it's some instinctual survival thing. Thanks for not believing what they say." she explained with a smile, as large as she could muster while under the pain of her injuries.

"You're welcome then." I replied, smiling myself.

"Hey David!" I heard someone yell, over in our direction. I could tell that the voice was Jake. "Are you still okay over there? The police are here." I hadn't noticed, but the gunfire had completely stopped.

_That was quick._

"Yes, I'm okay. There's someone else here too. I think she needs to get to a hospital." I turned back to face the Lucario.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to come with you." she stated.

"Nonsense, you need to see a doctor." I replied. I knew that out here, she would not live long with her extensive injuries. "Do you not trust me?"

She mumbled something under her breath. I could tell she was weighing out her options, until she eventually and slowly answered my question. "It's very hard for me to say yes. I know that I need medical attention, but I swore that I would never..." she trailed off. I think somehow I inadvertently brought up something that really did not need to be brought up.

I remembered what she had said earlier about people using pokemon like her for inhumane purposes. "If you're worried about anything happening, I can assure you that it won't happen."

"Sure. As if I needed you to protect me, that'd be the day." she scoffed. "But right now, I do need your help."

"So is that a yes?"

"I guess so." she answered, pulling herself up and grasping my shoulder for support instead of her left leg. I put my arm around her shoulder to help her keep her balance, like an athlete helping a teammate off of a pitch. "But, if you try to capture me, I'll beat you into a pulp." she whispered, inches away from my ear.

"In your condition..." I teased.

"What are you trying to say, that you are going to capture me or that I am weak?" she asked, half jokingly.

"I'm saying that you need to get to get medical treatment." I replied, caringly.

The evening sky was a welcome sight, from the tree covered ditch that I had been stuck in. The birds had begun to sing and for all that I knew, they could be talking some comprehensible language that I could not understand. My ideas as to how the universe was structured had been rattled by the day's events. Humans weren't alone at the top of the intelligence scale any longer.

I looked over to where Jake and I had taken cover from the gunfire some time ago. What I saw, I couldn't comprehend. Two large figures stood over the fallen tree, accompanied by around four smaller individuals.

The two of us hobbled over the grassland silently towards where the group had been clustered. When we got nearer to them, I could tell what the two larger objects were. They were birds! Not only were they birds, but they were around twenty feet tall. They looked similar to the ones that I had seen on the way here as they had the same markings, yet they were enormously larger. I knew that they were the smaller birds' evolutionary successor. It was kind of funny that the smaller birds could have fit inside the larger one's head without a problem.

As we approached them a person came running after us, I could tell he was a policeman. He was wearing an old timey type of a flying outfit, topped with a leather flying helm and goggles. He called back to the others, to signal that they had found us.

"Oi, guys, we found him." he hollered. He came running over to greet me, with great effort to see if I was alright.

"Charles Chamberlain, of the Sinnoh Air Guard." He introduced himself, arm outstretched. When he realized that I was using my arms in effort to keep the Lucario balanced against my shoulder while I continued forward, he lowered his hand. As he walked beside us at our slow speed. "We were relayed a message from Canalave City while transporting some freight to Jubilife that said there was some sort of shooting. I understand there was another victim with you, do you know where she is?" he asked. I could tell that he was totally ignoring the actual victim which was right next to me.

"You're looking right at her." replied the Lucario.

"Really, where?" he asked genuinely.

_What, was this a joke or something. If it was it wasn't funny._

I caught on to what he was doing. "She's right beside me you blockhead."

"Oh," he looked confused. "It's a pokemon. Can't you just return it to its ball?"

"First of all, I'm not an it, I am just as intelligent as you are. Second of all, I'm not owned by anyone. Thirdly, I would appreciate it if you got me some antiseptic before I pass out." she spoke through gritted teeth. When she had finished she was decidedly out of breath and I could tell she wasn't kidding. What I couldn't tell was the look on the airman's face was outrage at someone not human giving him orders, or confusion about how a wild Lucario acquired information on medicine.

"Uh sure..." he sauntered off towards his compatriots.

I glanced over to the Lucario. I could tell she was in immense pain. "Are you going to be okay?" I asked, concerned.

"I just need to..." she trailed off, going limp.

_Oh no..._

I knew something major was wrong, if she went unconscious, she may not awaken. "Charles, get over here!" I yelled. I found it odd using his name even though I had only met him a few minutes ago.

The Lucario had barely any strength left in her. She was barely holding on to my body to keep upright. Sensing that I would not be able to support her whole body weight, I carefully lowered her to the ground, facing the sky. Right before I successfully placed her on the ground, the last of her strength was used up and slid to the ground, out of my arms.

Charles came running back to us. "We don't have much medicine for pokemon with us. We thought we were answering a call for people being injured." he stated exasperated, catching his breath from the sprint from their mobile camp. His eyes glanced from me to the Lucario which was now on the ground. "This is very bad, the Lucario has lost a lot of blood." he got on his hands and knees and began to inspect the creature.

Kneeling beside me, he looked over the wounds that I had managed to patch. "These are very deep."

"But you have some sort of medicine that can help the situation can you?" I asked, worriedly.

"Unfortunately not." he stated grimly.

_WHAT?_

"There is one way that you can possibly save its life." he began. I ignored his use of the word "it". I was getting as sick of the idea of him using that word as much as the Lucario probably was, but I ignored it. I had to; there was a life to be saved. Charles ended his sentence by holding a small ball up in his hand, so that I could see. I knew that a pokeball was necessary for people who used pokemon to fight as they could keep the creature in some form of stasis, while it could be brought to a Pokemon Centre. It would keep the Lucario alive, but it would also violate my promise.

"I'm sorry, I can't..." I began.

"If you don't, the pokemon dies." Charles cut me off. I disliked how he thought of pokemon, but I knew he cared about them, however oddly.

I took the pokeball and looked down at the Lucario. Her breathing was shallow and she very well could have been slipping in and out of consciousness. I had to act quickly.

My finger depressed the centre button on the device to expand it.

I took one last look at the creature to see if there was any way of her hearing what I had to say. She was already unconscious, so I kept my message short.

"Please forgive me..."

My finger clamped down on the centre button one more time. One more decisive time. The pokeball opened slightly, and the same red light that had come out to greet me when I sent out my Natu emanated from the device. It met up with the Lucario, changing her colour to match its brilliance.

And she was gone...


	4. Gotta Love Humanity

My encounter with the Lucario definitely warped my view of the universe. I never in a million years thought that I would ever come face to face with such a creature. However, after overcoming the initial strangeness of it, the several behemoth-sized birds in front of me just didn't seem that unusual.

_Am I really getting used to this place?_

No, it must have had to do with something else. It could have been the sleep deprival. It also could have been the mad dash after to the Lucario or maybe it was the multiple times I was shot at on the way that put me in a state of shock. On second thought, it was probably a combination of both.

So in short terms, I was too bruised, mentally scarred and exhausted to notice how relatively strange fifteen foot tall birds were. In fact, I didn't even shrug when they paired me up with a "pilot" of one of the birds to make the return journey to Canalave.

The trip back to Canalave City was mostly uneventful, as the sky had already become dark as the sun fell behind the cityscape we were flying to. They gave Jake some anaesthetic which helped lessen his pain to the point where he could be stable enough to be flown out. The injuries he sustained were not life-threatening and loss of blood was quickly prevented via proper medical bandages applied quickly enough after the incident. This was unlike the Lucario who was basically being kept alive by a device that could fit in my hand.

I knew she was okay, mentally. Jake previously explained that when a pokemon was inside one of these balls, the physical form of them was converted into something else, therefore making the pokemon inside not aware of its physical state until it is healed. He couldn't explain it further to me and just simply said it was one of the anomalies found on the isles, but I found it to be somewhat disturbing, knowing that someone's life could be captured within something the size of my fist.

I would make good use of the release function on the pokeball as soon as I able after she was looked after. In the meantime, I cradled her pokeball as if I was carrying her helpless body. I kept my hand firmly attached to the ball as we flew through the air.

The dark outline of the city appeared on the horizon. Most of the lights in the city were out, save the pokemon center and several homes. The average tranquility of the city calmed my nerves a bit and took my focus away from the topic of pokeballs.

My pilot pressed his free hand to his flying cap and depressed a miniature button to the side of his ear and shouted a few incomprehensible words out loud. I couldn't understand him due to the noise of the air moving past my face. For a second, I thought that he was talking to me but then I realized that what he was using was a two-way radio.

He turned to face me, taking his gaze off of where we were going. The bird obviously had the intelligence to correct its flightpath if something unexpected happened. "We are going to be landing soon." he shouted, directly at me so that I could hear him. "The flight leader says that your friend Jake is going to be taken to a hospital, but you're going to be taken to the pokemon centre because Charles says you have an injured pokemon."

I nodded, as I didn't have the energy to yell back at the pilot even though he was only inches from me. He understood what I was indicating and spoke a few more words into the microphone then promptly held out his right hand to the side like a cycler signalling a turn.

We split off with the rest of the flight like the way a fighter jet would pull away from its squadron, except we were moving only around forty miles an hour. The bird turned off on its side and made a slight helix in its descent, streaking across the night with precise accuracy to our destination. A large "P" encircled by a large white ring marked out a landing pad on top of the two storey building.

The Pidgeot soared closer and closer to its target. For a second I got the feeling that we were going to crash straight into the landing pad until (to my relief), the bird started to stop itself. Its wings came back into a sail shape capturing and holding the air back from flowing through its feathers. It was a magnificent sight, the bird putting all of its effort into moving its wings in reverse to decelerate. It held it's talons out to catch the tar of the roof, indenting slightly into the material that I could guess was designed to be used for situations like this.

The mighty avian had completely stopped moving forward by the time it came to a stop on top of the building, hovering slightly as it finally came to a rest. It remained very still, waiting for us to disembark.

"Here we are." the pilot informed me, as he hopped off the back of his bird and stood right next to it. "I hope you weren't sick at all during the trip." he probably noticed my less than perfect state.

"Not at all, I've actually flown before." I replied truthfully, omitting the fact that I had flown aboard a jet and not a flying animal. "I'm just really tired. I..."

He cut me off "Just hold on a sec." He pressed his finger against the switch on his helm for a few seconds. After staring blankly into space for a few moments, he took his pressure off of the button. "Sorry about that, they just said that my squad has just reported in at the hospital and I'm supposed to get over there."

"Then I won't keep you." I replied. I guess they had other things to take care of. It was a good thing too, as I was way too drowsy to continue a decent conversation. "Just say thanks to everyone when you get there, I don't think we could have gotten out of that without you guys."

"I'll be sure to tell them." he replied, running his hand across the bird's head absentmindedly. The bird responded by rubbing its beak against the guard's arm, showing affection. The bird reminded me of a horse a bit when it interacted with the human. The man smiled. "You might want to move out of the way when we take off."

Right, the bird's wing beats would have knocked me right over if I had been standing in the same spot I had been standing since I arrived. I slowly backed up towards the edge of the landing pad, away from the downdraft that would soon be created. The man stood by and kept holding his bird that is until I had moved enough for him to lift off. He knew he had to get going and took his hand off to put his goggles on.

"Until next time." he shouted, as the bird began to move its giant wings backwards and forwards, creating enough thrust to get its entire body and its passenger airborne. It was a magnificent sight, seeing such companionship between such different types of creatures. Both relied upon each other so greatly and from the brief glimpse I had into their life, I saw that they were attached to each other.

_Perhaps not everyone here is cruel to pokemon._

I watched as the two of them flew off and slowly disappeared into the night, flying off to the city hospital and then to wherever.

The stairs were a challenge for me. Of course I was completely sober, but having not slept in felt like ages left me with poor motor control and very diminutive muscle strength which was as just as bad as being intoxicated. I practically fell down the stairs, barely keeping myself upright using the hand rails. It was a good thing the door at the bottom could be pushed open from the stairwell so that I could just open it with a light bodycheck rather than fiddle with a doorknob.

The room was the same as I had left it earlier in the day when I went with Jake to pick up his father's pokemon. The marble floors, the vaulted ceiling opening onto the second floor which I had bypassed were all unchanged. Even the nurse working the front desk was the same. The only difference was the lack of pokemon trainers populating the foyer. The nurse looked up from a magazine, shocked that I had come at such a late hour.

"Can I help you sir?" she asked, surprised. I sluggishly approached the front desk, hoping that I could walk in a straight line with my eyelids automatically shutting themselves trying to tell the rest of my body that they had had enough.

"Can I help you?" the nurse repeated, as I came nearer to where she was seated. I eventually reached the desk, though just barely.

The nurse changed tactics. "Are you alright? Should I call an ambulance? Is everything alright?" she began to grow panicked.

"It's okay." I assured. "Just really...tired." I struggled to say the next words clearly, not slurring my words together. "Take her." I said handing over the pokeball to the attendant.

"Your pokemon needs to be healed right?" she asked, trying to see what was really wrong with me, not buying my story of being tired but at the same time trying to be accommodating to me.

"Yes." I gasped.

"Are you sure you are okay?" she asked, worried. She skilfully took the pokeball and attached it to a large machine that looked like one-hour photo developer. I would learn later it was used for taking care of pokemon when they were returned to their balls.

"Yes, I'm sure." I replied slowly, now keeping myself propped up by holding on to the counter with both hands.

Suddenly, the room started to get darker, clouding my vision. It was like my eyes were closed but I knew they were being held above my irises by my willpower to stay awake. At least I thought they were...

_Why is she running towards me?_

I found myself collapsing under my own body weight, unable to stay up any longer.

_When you are this tired, marble feels like the softest bed in the world._

Light appeared suddenly, flooding my field of vision with a yellowish-red colour. I recognized the glow as the morning sun piercing through my eyelids.

_Was it morning already?_

My rest was definitely not long enough; in fact it was almost non-existent.

_I need to start getting more sleep._

I knew that just by lying there with my eyes shut wasn't going to constitute sleeping, so reluctantly I opened my eyes slowly, adjusting to the light. The light wasn't the sun, or even a normal incandescent, but one from a harsh, pure white fluorescent tube.

I didn't remember hitting the rock hard floor and I certainly didn't remember falling asleep on the surface either. The nurse must have left me there overnight, though she did have the decency to cover me with one of those standard issue hospital blankets and wedge a pillow between my head and the floor. For that, I was grateful.

Looking up and rubbing my head at the same time, I noticed that no-one was there. No mysterious strangers, no Jake and not even the nurse. All that was there was a row of black chairs, the ones you would normally find in a hospital waiting room.

_Is anyone here?_

It wasn't a millisecond after I thought that before my question was answered with a flutter of small wings and a small jump off of one of the chairs.

...

My Natu emitted another one of his emotional bursts, this one a mixture of laughter and something that was almost a "Hello".

"...And good morning to you." I replied back to the bird, happy to see him again. The little finch returned with a chirp instead of telepathy. The little exchange helped make me forget about my lack of sleep.

"I see someone is up." said a voice.

_Who said that?_

I couldn't see anything from my position on the floor, so I slowly raised myself bracing myself against one of the chairs. My finch while I did this, scaled up my shirt sleeve and onto my shoulder keeping a grip on me. It already felt natural having him sitting there, it felt calming. Most likely it was because of his mind speech which was always a nice presence in any situation.

I looked around the room, but all that I saw was just empty space. The reception area was still vacated, which was kind of odd as I thought that the people who stayed here at the hotel would be up by now. I guess I was wrong.

"Hey, over here!" the voice called again. It was coming from the desk, the desk that I had dropped off the Lucario the night before. I instantly recognized the person talking to me as the nurse. I still didn't know her name.

"Hello." I replied, not knowing what else to say. I walked slowly over to where she was seated.

"I see you slept through the night." She stated, looking blankly across the room fixated on one particular corner of the room, while idly eating some cereal "I thought you wouldn't."

"Really, I was so exhausted I couldn't imagine not sleeping."

She looked at me inquisitively. "Is that the reason why you collapsed, you were just tired?"

"Yes, I guess so."

She looked really relieved. "I thought that you had passed out because you were drunk or something. I almost took you to a hospital you know, that was until I got done reading your blood samples..." she tried to keep the last words of her sentence to the lowest possible volume.

_Wait! My blood samples?_

"What, how?"

"Well, after you passed out, I had to find out what happened to you didn't I?"

"So you just flipped me over and started drawing blood from me?" I asked, somewhat annoyed and at the same time surprised.

"Exactly, and when you didn't wake up when I took the samples I knew that something was wrong. But, the samples came back negative; I knew I wasn't dealing with a drug or alcohol case."

"Oh, I didn't know I gave off that vibe." I replied, raising an eyebrow.

She chuckled. "In this profession we can't take any chances." She took another bite of her cereal, and then looked up suddenly. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. One of those policemen came looking for you earlier today, and I said you were sleeping. He said he would come back later. Do you know who I'm talking about?"

"Yeah, I think so." It was probably Charles, the leader of the squadron that had come to pick up Jake and I. He had said he would meet up with me today to discuss how to get us to Jubilife.

"Good, 'cause he's going to be back any time now." She outstretched her arm and stole a glance at her wristwatch. I wondered what time it said on that watch, it must have been around six in the morning, before the centre opened and before the crowds would have moved in.

"So, how did..." I was about to ask how I ended up on the chairs, but then was cut off. "Hold on for a second." the nurse interrupted quickly, with a mouth full of bran flakes. She grabbed a remote control and hit the mute button, making the flat screen television across the room burst into sound. "Sorry, this only comes on once a morning."

"It's okay." I needed a break anyways to get my stuff in order for when the Air Servicemen came back.

A musical interlude played overlapping the graphic display that flooded the forty inches of screen. There was a male voice that eventually rose over the music. "This is Vulpix News, the most news in the morning." A logo appeared on the screen. Two searchlights illuminated the words "Vulpix News" which was suspended over what looked like a movie studio.

_Now that was too funny!_

Wow, I couldn't believe they were able to get syndicated here. I guess all they needed to do was modify the logo to fit the word "Vulpix" and not "Fox", and just report on local news. I chuckled a bit at the thought.

"Why are you laughing? This is terrible?" exclaimed the nurse from across the room.

The news anchor was now on the screen, reading off the latest reports. "It has been confirmed that there has been four more victims of yesterday's suspected arson attack at the Olivine Port Authority."

_ Oh..._

"I was actually laughing at something totally unrelated." She looked at me with one of those 'oh really...' looks. "I swear."

"...the building was gutted by fire, as an uncontrolled inferno caused the roof to collapse before rescue workers could reach the inside." The newscaster changed papers and shuffled them into a stack. "This is just in; the national minister of education has been reported missing by his family today."

_That was the same person that was authorizing the Polytechnic. _

"Can you turn up this for a second?" I asked, interested in what was going on. This could be serious.

"Oh, now you're paying attention to the news..." she retorted, raising the volume on the television set.

The announcer was now much louder, giving me a better understanding of what he was saying. "Yes, James Monroe has been confirmed to have not shown up at this yesterday's scheduled cabinet meeting at the national parliament as hoped by his immediate family. He hasn't been seen in over half a week and is considered to still be missing. His wife has refused to comment."

A new image appeared on the screen, replacing the one of the newscaster with one of stock footage. "These are messages from earlier in the week when popular protests took control of the main streets of Slateport City in the Hoenn Nation." Flag bearing protestors marched up in large numbers of the main drag of the city. Some carried signs that called for the resignation of the government. Some signs simply said "Get out foreigners!" and rubbish like that. One unifying theme though of all of the individuals was the general anger.

"The protests were organized by the PFLA or the 'People's Freedom and Liberty Organization'. The organization has been criticized recently for its almost militant support for isolationism and for harsher crackdowns on foreign imported goods that they claim are simply stolen domestic goods that have been rebranded by members of organized crime syndicates."

I snorted loudly.

"I know." the nurse replied, agreeing with my retort. "These people are such idiots, yet they almost won in the last election. They call for the isolation of our nation, but they don't realize that the people outside of our borders are people just as much as we are. They aren't pirates hiding from the law on some obscure island chain. All they are doing is..." she trailed off. "I'm drawing a blank, I can't think of why they would be doing something like this."

"I one hundred per cent agree." Ignorance breeds hatred and ignorance can only be combated through knowledge. What these people needed desperately was the influx of outside knowledge.

"What are we agreeing on?" asked someone. Both of us turned to look at who had joined our conversation. It was a policeman from the Sinnoh Air Guard. It was Charles.

"It's that whole mess over foreigners again." replied the nurse, casually.

Charles sighed. "I guess it can't be helped." he said lowly.

_ What was that supposed to mean?_

"Anyways, I've come to talk to David in private, can you excuse us for a moment?" he asked, but might has well have stated as no one in the right mind would have said no to a request like that from a military officer.

"Sure, the room you requested is right down the hall and right across from the stairs."

"Thanks." he replied as he took a set of keys from the receptionist. "Right this way David." he pointed down the hall that we were to travel down.

The room was dimly lit. Small beams of light managed to seep through the murky yellow tint that had grown over the light bulb in the many years of being in such a damp and cold environment. The area was stacked from floor to ceiling with boxes containing different types of medical supplies. Odd names graced the front of the crates like "Parylz Heals 40 count".

"Take a seat, the faster we can get through this, the faster we can get out of here." he motioned to an old set of folding chairs and a small cards table.

"I take it you're here to interrogate me about what happened yesterday." I supposed, sitting down.

"Right-o." he replied, taking out a small clipboard and pen. "So you are David Wilson, male, five foot ten, native of Sinnoh and born in Jubilife City?" he looked up from his information inquisitively.

"Yes, it's all correct." The questionnaire reminded me of the one that I needed to fill out to get my owner's licence.

"Good, good. All of the information your friend gave us is correct then." he started. "Now to get into what happened yesterday. I already got from Jake that you stopped for a few minutes at around twenty to seven. Shortly afterwards you were assaulted by an unknown assailant. By 6:45, you had left the place where the shooting first occurred to assist another person who had been caught in the same attack. We arrived at 7:03 exactly, probably scaring off what we believe is the perpetrators. Is this all correct?"

"As far as I can tell." I answered truthfully.

"Have you been off any of the islands at any time?"

"No, but if I was why would I tell you?"

"Hey, I'm just reading off of the paper. I've never had to do this before." he chuckled. "Actually all of these questions are just rubbish anyways. I'm just going to ask you some of my own questions know. Is that alright?"

"Sure, go ahead and shoot."

"Okay, the most important question I have to ask is did you catch a glimpse of your assailant when you were away from your accomplice Jake? We already asked him, and he has denied you seeing anything when you were with him."

"No, I really didn't see anything at all. I could hear where the shots were coming from though."

"Yeah, Brennan has already given us that information and gave us the direction of the gunfire. Are you sure you don't have any other information of value?"

I really didn't have anything else to tell the man, I was for the most part blocked off from seeing anyone else by either a ditch or a log. As for the rest of the time, I was too concerned about my own survival to notice many details. Perhaps the Lucario saw something. She might be able to help them sketch a mugshot of the guy.

"I don't, but you might want to ask that Lucario that was also involved."

He laughed. "Sorry, we can't accept testimony from non-humans. It's too unreliable."

That really annoyed me. Why did he have to be such a bigot? "That's ridiculous, the Lucario has eyes, she can speak and from what I can tell has at least near-human intelligence."

"Still, the Lucario is just an animal." he rolled his eyes at me like a teenager explaining to his younger brother that Santa didn't actually exist.

"But then so are we."

"What do you mean?"

"Well what defines us as Human? Is it the body shape, the eyes, the language? If so Lucarios count as humans. Or if in reverse, we count as animals."

"But we live civilized, in cities. We create our environment. We pave the way for our own existence. We have mastered all other species and have created our own reality."

"But didn't we at one point live in caves, in fear of other animals. Weren't our ancestors that lived as hunters and gatherers in fear of larger predators?"

"We weren't as intelligent back then."

"We were not? Homo sapiens have been around long before civilization." there was a long pause before I started again. "Regardless of what we are, it is irrelevant. We know that we are intelligent. It is a question of if we are willing to accept that we are not the only ones with intelligence on this planet."

A beeping noise interrupted me. "Hold on for a second." Charles told me abruptly. He pressed his hand up against the side of his hat like the other pilot had done to listen in on the radio signals coming from another person in his squad. "Uh huh... Uh huh... Got it, thanks Jeff." he took his appendage off of his helm and placed it back on the table. After talking briefly with the person on the other radio set, the room's atmosphere seemed to grow colder. The man known as Charles seemed to change somehow.

"Something serious has come up. I have to inform you that it is illegal to lie when interviewed by a member of the Sinnoh National Police Force." he said coldly. "It has come to my attention that you have been lying to me this whole time."

"Now what was I lying about?"

"I've just discovered that you are not in fact born within the borders of the United Island's jurisdiction. Weren't you?"

Now something like this was not supposed to happen. I was supposed to be able to walk into the country without a hitch. I knew this was impossible without Jake helping me remember my back story and make sure I didn't mess up my Sinnoh information when talking to the natives. Though, even if I screwed up the police were not supposed to get involved. They were not supposed to know. If they did, they would detain me for being an illegally landed immigrant.

"Weren't you?" he repeated, angrier this time when he said those words. It was almost as if he was getting back at me for pseudo-winning the argument over human intelligence.

"I'm David Wilson, and I was born seventeen years ago at the Jubilife regional hospital. I still live there." I listed off my personal information like a captured soldier repeating his name and id number.

He leaned closer to me, keeping his eyes fixed on me. "You and I both know that is a lie. The government never lies and their information on you is in conflict with your description of yourself." Oh great, the government was supposed to be on my side. Was it now trying to sabotage the operation?

"I am telling you the truth."

"LIAR!" he slammed his fist on the table, the Natu on my shoulder let out a frightened burst of energy. He slowly regained his calmness, moving inches away from my face, so close that I could see a pin identifying him with the group opposed to ceasing isolationism.

_Damn, this was bad luck._

"I'm taking you into custody." he said slowly. I knew he was trying to intimidate me into being arrested, but I knew I wasn't going that easily.

"Hold on." I said slyly. "I have my ID on me; just give me a sec okay." I moved my hand into my pants pocket and drew out my owner's card, showing my face and personal information. I threw it over to him, quickly. "I think you will find my papers are clearly in order."

"This doesn't tell me where you live. Where is your home, you immigrant?" he shot back at me, trying to catch me on something only a resident would know.

"Jubilife City." I said, quickly.

"It says your address is located within a commercial district."

"I live at a collegiate there, in the dorms."

"...And not with your parents..."

"Correct."

"Where are they?"

"I don't have to tell you that." I quipped.

His eyes narrowed. He knew that he had no right to detain me and I knew that as well. A small smile graced my face.

"You can't really keep me here? Correct?" I asked. "You have no evidence to charge me with anything and I have sufficient identification on me to prove that I was born here."

He mumbled something incoherently, not wanting to concede defeat.

"...And I can go correct?" I repeated the last word of the phrase at the same pitch as I did in the previous sentence, accentuating the fact that I wanted him to agree like with the statement before.

"Yes." he muttered through clenched teeth. "Here's your freaking identification." he threw the card onto the table with an audible thud.

I retrieved it and was about to leave when I heard his voice say something to me. "I just want you to know that you are treading water. Any time now you are going to fall beneath the water and no one here is going to save you, especially not the air guard. We won't help you the next time someone tries to force you to leave. So I suggest you leave on your own free will."

I looked back on him. I couldn't tell if he was threatening me or what else it was, but it was cold-hearted. It was the kind of hatred that sends shivers down your spine and makes you unsure of your footing. "I don't need your advice."

I left him in there, to his thoughts about me, about the world and about himself. I still kind of felt bad for him though. It wasn't his fault that he didn't know about the rest of the world. To him, all the people who didn't live in the United Islands were just a bunch of lawless criminals who wanted to leech off of the country that he risked his life for everyday.

He didn't follow me up the stairs right away and I continued by myself back up to the reception desk in the centre's main room, all the while wishing that I could ask Jake as to what would become of our journey after the past two day's events. I didn't know what to do. I would have to wait till I could ask him at the hospital if it was safe to keep marching to the polytechnic.

"Well, here is your Lucario, properly looked after." the nurse handed me the pokeball that I reluctantly captured the creature in the night before. I was lost in thought, not even making eye contact. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong." I said, slowly looking up from my hands to acknowledge the nurse. She wore a smile on her face, though was slight broken due to me looking dejected. Her expression made me smile as well, albeit a bit weaker than hers. "I've just had a rough couple of days." I couldn't really explain what had just transpired.

"Just let me know if you need anything." she replied, kindly.

"I'll be fine." I said back, sincerely. "I just want to thank you for helping me last night."

"It's all in a day's work." she laughed. A small red light came on above the desk, encased in a small wire cage it began to flash. "Which reminds me, I have to get back to work. It appears another pokemon needs my help."

"I won't keep you then."

"See you again sometime." she replied, running back towards the back of the centre, probably looking after another person in need of medical help.

We are a strange species. Often we are good and often we easily be convinced to do wrong by others. I was always a firm believer in the good humanity can do, in how ordinary people can help others for purposes other than satisfying their own needs, but now I was quickly finding out just how bad people could get if you pushed them.

Sinnoh was a land of contrast. Many people here cared and took care of their pokemon, for instance the policeman who flew me here was very kind to his bird. Though at the same time, many are not respected the way they should. There are many here that want change, want openness and freedom while some fear and despise it.

I knew the good outweighed the bad. It had to. That's why I decided at that moment that I would stay in this newfound country. No matter how many people tried to silence me. I knew that every time something like what happened yesterday happened again, there would always be someone to help me out and if anyone needed help I would be there for them. Whoever they were.

Walking out of the building, I knew that this would just be the first encounter of both sides of this odd phenomenon known as humanity.


	5. Motivation

After almost twenty-four hours without food, I was very hungry. Actually, hungry probably wasn't the best word I could have used to describe my situation as I had never felt this famished in my life. I hadn't eaten since my departure from the Kingfisher's home port in Canada and now the lack of food was starting to give me a bad headache. To combat this, I riskily hurried into a convenience store to buy something for breakfast. I ended up getting some seeds for my Natu and an energy bar for myself.

_And just think, you'll be eating granola for the next two days straight!_

Using the last of my money, I purchased an extra bar for Jake. I knew as well as anyone else how horrible hospital food could be. Sometimes it could even be worse than what you are in there for. I stuffed the food in the outer compartment of my rucksack, but kept the sunflower seeds out in my pocket, sporadically tossing one up every few moments to my happy Natu who managed to catch each seed with his beak as I threw it into the air.

...

His happy spirits tried to make me forget about yesterday, but ultimately failed.

I walked through the city, watching my back at every corner. I knew someone was either trying to kill me or the person who I've been travelling with: Jake Brennan.

I scrolled through the possible motives that could have provoked someone to act in the way they did, whoever they were. It seemed unlikely that the intended target of the attack would have been Jake, but then again he was the son of the biggest businessman on the islands, Rory Brennan. The Rory Brennan that headed Poketech, one of the largest facetious industrial corporations that imported Japanese and American goods and resold them under their own name. He made millions from the trade. Maybe an attack on his son was to extort money from him? It seemed unlikely that would be the case as if anyone wanted to do that; they would have just attempted to kidnap him and possibly me at the same time. Extorting money from someone, when the person you are using as collateral is dead is completely useless. I put the thought out of my head.

There was also myself. The immigrant, the foreigner or whatever you wanted to call me. I wasn't from here and people didn't like it when you were born somewhere else other than in one of the four nations or their dependencies. Nearly fifty per cent of the country hated the idea of me ever stepping into the country and some within that percentile hated the idea of me even existing. Did that drive people enough to want to kill me? I knew that some people would. The only problem with that theory was that my name was not in the hands of anyone except the federal government, the same government that allowed me to come in the first place. Plus, there was the fact that I was just a small fish in a big pond, killing me wasn't going to change the government's stance on immigration. If anyone was going to try to stop the operation, they would go for someone higher up in the ladder.

_Sadly, I suspect they already have..._

Then there was the Lucario. I really doubted that she was the intended target of the attack. Really, what could she have done to get the gunmen to try to kill her? She wasn't the daughter of a businessman or a controversial immigrant like me; however she was hit like the rest of us. In fact, she could have been the first to be shot at in the field. The gunfire began several seconds before Jake got shot. A bunch of shots were fired without hitting either of us, and we were just standing there oblivious as to what was happening. The shooters could be very accurate when they wanted to be. They nearly hit me with every shot when I was running for cover and to help the Lucario. So putting two and two together, it only added up that she was the first target.

_The one thing that did not add up was the lack of a motive._

I tried to forget about what happened and just focus on what was happening today and what was going to happen in the future. It was just hard to do when people's lives were involved.

Before I left the city, I knew I had to visit Jake in the hospital to see if he was alright. Upon reaching the hospital, the receptionist in the ER informed me that he had been moved to another hospital. To be specific he was airlifted to Jubilife Hospital minutes before I arrived. Officially he was moved to make room in the hospital for more important cases, but I knew it might have had to do with the Air Guard trying to prevent me from reaching the Polytechnic.

_If only I took a more direct route to the hospital..._

Jake probably told them that he was escorting me to the City as I didn't know the way myself. Charles, who was still furious at me, probably took the initiative and removed my only way of progressing further into the country, probably doing it because he wanted not only to be spiteful, but also because he hated immigrants. I now had to find a new person to give me directions to Jubilife City.

_There was just one thing that I had to do first._

I snuck out of the city, using a near abandoned street on the outskirts of town. Old brick buildings towered above the small narrow alley that ended abruptly at one of those yellow and black signs that reminded you that if you went any farther, the road would end. I knew that if I went left or right like the sign directed me to, I would run back into town or if I went left, cross paths with the infamous route 218. I went straight ahead, ignoring the sign.

I continued a small ways, the brush not being excessively dense, there were thankfully no roots on the ground to trip me up and I was making good time. A small clearing appeared ahead and it reminded me of what I needed to do. This one was much smaller than the one that I had been ambushed in the previous day. I could see all sides of it when in the centre and anyone that would have wanted to reattempt a shooting could be spotted easily. It was perfect.

I put down my backpack against a tree and opened the top of it to reveal two red and white orbs. I knew one of them was the one that belonged to my Natu. I took the opposite one out and told my Natu to take a rest on the top of my pack while I continued. He complied with a chirp and a small glide down to stop on the handle on the top, using it as a perch.

_I wonder how well he __understands me?_

I depressed the small button in the centre of the pokeball, the one that expanded it. The small ball expanded in my hand like a hardened balloon.

I knew what it contained, but was hesitant to open it. I had no clue as to how the Lucario would react to how I had captured her. I captured her to save her life, but I did break an oath I took in order to do so. It was hard to know how she would react to what I had done, I didn't know her long enough.

_Here goes nothing._

Pressing the button for a second time, the ball opened. I knew from a previous experience what would happen next; the ball opened slightly in my hand, making the red and white portions separated from each other. A red light radiated from the device, forming a stream of energy converging on a single point. The light, after a while began to take a shape, one that I instantly recognized.

The beam from the pokeball now had ceased to flow and now all of its energy was now held in the form of a Lucario. Its colour quickly changed from red, to purple and then to blue. The light began to trace out more details of the Lucario's body: the white ivory spikes on her arms and on her chest as well as her Anubis-like face and the black dreadlocks that made up her hair.

Her form was slightly suspended above the ground, possibly a centimetre or two. She didn't move for a few seconds as the last of the red radiation disappeared. Although the distance was minimal, she almost collapsed as she touched the ground. The Lucario must have her energy severely depleted from her time at the centre. I probably would have been exhausted as well.

She slowly regained steadiness on her feet and began to dust herself off, checking on her physical form. Her body was remarkably intact in comparison to yesterday where I could have sworn she wasn't going to be able to live.

The creature looked up at me. I wasn't sure how she would react when she saw me. Would it be with anger? For my sake I hoped not, but if she did I would not be surprised. She wore an expression that I couldn't explain; it was almost as if she didn't know what to feel. Her eyes slowly met mine as she raised her head to meet mine in gaze.

As soon as her irises lined up with mine, she jumped. Her eyes widened and she spoke with a frantic tone. "Cover your eyes!"

Her voice struck me off guard. I half expected her to yell at me or strike me or something along those lines. But with a request like that, I automatically complied, fearing that something was about to happen beyond my comprehension at the time. I clutched my eyes with my hand shielding them fully from whatever was about to intrude upon the section of the forest.

I waited for something to happen, anything to happen. Nothing did. After a few seconds of this, I brought up the courage to ask a question. "Why am I doing this?" I asked meekly.

A sigh was emitted from what I could identify as the Lucario, though knowing for sure was impossible as I still had my hand covering my shut eyes. "It appears that during either my time in the pokeball or at the centre, my clothing has disappeared." she said quietly.

Oh, it was modesty that was motivating my actions. "I have some extra sets of clothes in my pack if you want to have any." I offered, pointing to where I thought my backpack was.

I heard a chuckle. "You mean over here..." she replied. How was I supposed to know where 'here' was?

"Yes, wherever you are pointing right now. Take whatever you want." I wasn't pleading or acting like someone who has just been held up, trying to appease someone who had overpowered them but more like someone trying to help.

I heard some rubbing of fabric against fabric, and I could guess that the Lucario was rummaging through my clothes. It took a few minutes, but she managed to find a few articles of clothing that fit her. Barely, I must add as I was probably five or six inches taller than she was and had a completely different body shape. This was not counting the three spikes and tail.

I heard footsteps approaching me, crunching on the undergrowth of the forest. "Stay very still for a few seconds." Not wanting to question, I did what she said. It might have been something as important as what she requested of me before.

Air moved past my face. It felt like the pressure built up from a speeding bullet as it cut through the air. I would know very well. The sensation stopped as abruptly as it began. "You may open your eyes..."

A blue and black fist awaited my open eyes. I swore it was moving towards my face and I flinched immediately, but as my eyes opened after involuntarily seizing, I could tell something was up. It hadn't hit me. It must have been travelling very slowly. In fact, it didn't move. It stopped millimetres from my face.

"Now, if you could have still seen me when you had your eyes covered, you would have flinched when I pretended to strike you, not when I told you to look." She explained, lowering her fist to her side so that I could see her face once more. She was dressed in a black t-shirt and a pair of my gray jeans. The size difference was overcome by the size of the size of her chest spike pushing on the centre of the t-shirt, and her tail running down the back of one of the pant legs which looked really uncomfortable.

"Now why would I not trust you?" I asked. The Lucario looked surprised at the statement, as if I said something out of the ordinary.

"Most people don't, and I don't trust them. Normally when I do this, the person I'm testing fails and gets hit." she replied. I guess I was not the typical United Islander, believing that it was right to treat pokemon with respect. I did not know if that would get me into trouble here or if it would just give away my identity. I hoped for neither.

"I guess you just haven't met many decent people."

"I guess not." she replied softly. She looked at me for a minute, as if to figure out what kind of person I was by judging my body language.

"You know you can cut an opening in those for your tail if you want." I suggested, mentioning the jeans that she was now wearing and trying to break the ice.

"But wouldn't it ruin them for you?" she answered, sceptically and cautiously.

"Well, I was thinking you could keep those, if you wanted to of course." I replied. I wasn't just going to release her here naked.

"Of course I would!" she laughed. "Thank you so much." she looked overjoyed at what I had just given her.

"Relax; it's just a pair of pants and a t-shirt."

"Sorry, it's just that no one has ever given me clothes. Most of the stuff I've worn has been just taken from other people or items of clothing that has been cast aside. Humans are just not keen on giving non-humans clothes."

I could see why. People who were of different classes throughout history have always been kept back in some way from higher society. For instance in Russia, it was illegal to teach a serf to read or write during much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Most of the landowners feared that if the people were able to question the world around them (which books and writing allowed), the serfs would be fed up with the way they were treated and start a rebellion. It was same "fed up" state of mind that fuelled the Bolshevik revolution in nineteen-seventeen. Even though it eventually turned Russia into a totalitarian one-party oligarchy, the original ideals of the revolution were right.

Although this was different than wearing clothes, the same principal applied. Think about it. Clothes are a symbol of civilization. Deprive people of that symbol and they appear to stray far from that ideal of being civilized. Even if they were the smartest people on earth, they would still be looked down upon and would not be able to advance in society.

"It's that difference," she continued. "The difference between you and most people. You see me as an equal not as an animal. I like that."

"Glad you do, I treat everyone like that."

"I just hope you aren't buttering me up to tell me that I am now yours because you captured me."

"No, of course not, I would never do something like that. I don't even recall ever capturing you in the first place."

"You kind of did when you caught me with that ball. Didn't you?"

"All that I remember was finding a way to keep you alive until I could get you to a doctor."

She smiled at this, seeing what I meant. I would keep the promise that I made the day before; I would make no attempt to keep her as my property. "I just have to get your pokeball and I can release you." I added.

I saw her watch me as I walked over to my backpack, which was still leaned up against the tree where my Natu was standing guard over the top of. I knew he didn't put up a fuss when the Lucario came to take a set of clothes from my bag. In the few hours I met him I knew that he was going to be a wonderful... whatever-he-was-going-to-be when he evolved. I had to check out what he was going to evolve into at some point.

...

He skilfully scaled up the tree next to me with his talons up to a point which was above my head, then jumped off backwards. I was fearful that he would fall to the ground as he didn't have the wing strength to successfully land from that distance from the ground, though something, almost telepathically told me that I should just stay where I was. I put my trust in him, and he performed a back flip, landing on my shoulder in his usual place.

"Cool." I said, over my shoulder to the little bird.

...

"Did you just say something?" I heard the Lucario ask.

"I was just talking to my Natu here." I answered, walking back over to the Lucario, pokeball in hand. I noticed that she had already made a hole in the back of the trousers and had started threading through her tail.

"Can he talk?" she asked.

"Well, not yet..." I tried explaining it as best as I could. I ended up explaining the entire way we crossed paths. "Is his 'talent' normal?"

"It's not normal for all to be able to project such things like that, but some of all species do have that gift..." She trailed off. I could tell she was deep in thought about it.

"Anyways, I better get to releasing you."

"Right-o"

I took the sphere in my hand and searched for the small indent where the small 'reset' button was held. My hand touched the small notch and in response, I grasped a pen in my opposite hand, poising it for the strike that would press down the small release button.

_Damn thing doesn't fit._

I struggled with it for a few seconds trying to force the pen into the narrow channel, so it would come in contact with the button.

"Here, allow me." the Lucario said, casually.

"Okay, you try to open it." I said half-sarcastically, handing the ball over to her. Before I could offer the pen as well, she had already had the ball a vice-grip. She wound up her arm behind her, prepping for a release of potential energy, making it kinetic. It flew out of her grasp with a near sonic speed, almost as if a hot-shot trainer would have thrown it during a match. The only difference was that her pokeball was headed on a one-way trip to a boulder, which was situated on the edge of the clearing. It impacted the rock and split into more than a dozen pieces and depositing itself around the heavy object. She was now truly free, like she should have been all along.

"That method works as well." I said after the show of force, depositing my pen back into my pocket. She just smiled, and we stood in silence for a minute or two.

"I think it's time for me to say goodbye." She finally said.

"So soon?"

"I'm afraid so," she sighed. "There is a place I need to be and only so much time for me to reach it."

"The same is true for me as well." I replied, not mentioning where I had to go, to try to remain somewhat anonymous as a foreigner, not mentioning that I had no idea where I was going and especially not why I was going.

We stood awkwardly, not knowing how to say what needed to be said. It was the Lucario that spoke up first. "I just want you to know before I leave that I really appreciate what you have done for me. No one has ever wanted to help me in my life and I really..." she started to tear up. From what I could pick up from talking to her, she must have had a pretty dreadful life.

"Now don't cry." I rested a hand on one of her shoulders. She looked up at me from an arm she was using to try to stop her eyes from welling and in a flash; she put both arms around me, gripping my shirt and giving me a loving hug.

"I don't know of any other way I can say it." she said to me. She had put her muzzle over my unoccupied shoulder, the side of her face next to mine. I just kept silent, with nothing to say.

We eventually broke the embrace, with her moving away from me slowly. "I really do need to get going." she said in a rush, not looking me in the face.

The Lucario turned and walked off in a direction that was opposite that of the city, towards the centre of the island. "Take care of yourself."

"Oh, I will..." she replied over her shoulder to me.

I smiled as I started zipping up the top of my pack and readying myself to make the return trip to Canalave to see if I could charter someone to take me to Jubilife.

_ I wonder if I will ever see the Lucario again._

Perhaps in another life, we both had somewhere to be and we were both at risk of being assaulted again. If we ever met up again, the risk would literally double. Then again, if we ever travelled with someone else we risked our own life as the person could be our assailant. Everyone was suspect.

Perhaps trying to hire someone to replace Jake was a dangerous action to take. It wasn't paranoia, but a real threat to my safety. Even asking for directions could be dangerous; the person who tried to kill me would most likely remember that I was headed west to Jubilife City on route 218, as there weren't any other cities along the way. They would just trail me into the road and gun me down.

_The Lucario might know..._

Was she still in sight? It would be safe to ask her. She might even be travelling there herself. Again, if we travelled together it would increase our chances of being shot at would be increased but if we travelled apart, we could be singled out no problem. For instance, I was a foreigner who didn't know a Porygon from a Pokeball and she was a Lucario that wore clothes.

_ We fit in perfectly._

I saw a blur of blue and grey disappear behind a large deciduous tree almost out of range of my voice. I had to make a decision before it was too late.

"Hey," I called out in her direction. "Miss Lucario!" I saw the creature walk back in sight, stepping back into a small opening in the forest.

"Yes?" I heard a voice return my message. Good, she can still hear me.

"Hold on a second!" I answered. I quickly swept my backpack onto my arms in a single motion and set off at a high pace towards where I saw the Lucario last.

"Miss Lucario?" she asked as I reached her. "What am I? Your school teacher?"

"Well, I..." I didn't want to mention the fact that I had never did learn what her name was.

"Just kidding." she cut me off before I could explain further. "What do you want to tell me?" I explained my whole predicament about losing my guide after the incident on route 218. The only thing I left out was the fact that I didn't come from any of the four major islands of the archipelago.

"So, I was just wondering if you could give me directions to Jubilife City that don't involve Route 218." I finished.

"That's a hard one." she started, trying to think of something, "It's very hard for you humans to get around without equipment. You're probably going to get lost without a GPS and probably killed by some sort of animal without a capable pokemon, not your Natu."

"Thanks for the encouragement." I added sarcastically.

"Don't mention it." she replied, just as sarcastic and grinning. "Although, you can come with me for a while, I'm going to be going near there anyways. Do you want to?"

"Sure." I replied, not trying to sound too excited. This was way better than travelling with some random person who was just going to go with me for money.

"Just try to keep up."


	6. What is in a Name?

She wasn't kidding; we set off at a brisk pace. It was one of the fastest I would have walked by myself, without the bird and the backpack of course. The path we followed created a straight line on a map if viewed from above. We kept in one direction the whole time we walked, often climbing over fallen tree trunks and cliff faces in order to maintain our direction. The path that we followed was not marked and if I had not been accompanied by the Lucario, I would have never thought to take the route we were taking as it seemed the most difficult compared to all the other ways one could navigate the forest.

Saying it was the most difficult, somehow seems to be an understatement in this situation. Scaling forty foot cliff faces without equipment is something I would have not attempted alone. It was a good thing the Lucario was a good mountaineer.

The forest itself was one of the most incredible places I have ever seen. The plants seemed to be in the best of conditions. Everything was green and alive; none of the acid rain had caused damage here. In fact the entire flora looked mostly unchanged from what you could have seen a botanist draw when the first scientific expeditions came across the South Pacific. When all of the endemic plant and animal species existed in the state in which they had for millions of years, before many of them were erased from every written work save history books.

You see, the culprit most of the time wasn't climate change or pollution. It was the neglect and most times lack of respect of the first European visitors to many islands in the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea. When they came to an island, they weren't the only ones on the ships. They brought livestock, pets and other stowaway animals.

A good example was the pigs that the Spanish so famously left on every island they visited. The plan was if any Spanish sailor was shipwrecked on a said island, he would be able to eat some of the pig population that was introduced by a previous journey to the island. It took them many years to figure out that it wasn't beneficial to leave these hogs on these islands. This was due to the fact that they would usually eat all of the plant life and then die of starvation after their food supply ran out. Now you can go to islands all over the world and find nothing but sand, and if you are lucky you'll find a skull of a pig.

Then there were always the famous cats, rats and stoats which have been blamed for the extinctions of many of the world's now only historical herbivores. In the North and the West, these animals are relatively low on the food chain, but in the islands of the Pacific they were the deadliest of predators and more effective at hunting than a great white shark on a school of tuna. Since most species had no natural predators, these small-time carnivores wreaked havoc all across the world turning many species extinct.

It wasn't that these threats to the flora and fauna weren't introduced to these islands, it was just that the islands seemed to be more resilient than most. All invasive species to the islands have always been "taken care of".

We continued our trek through the bush. All the while I remained silent, mostly because I didn't want to admit that I did not know her name. I thought she mentioned it before, but I was probably mistaken and before long I got up the courage to ask what her name was.

"So do you have a name?" I asked, trying to be witty. After the words left my lips, I regretted them. I probably sounded ridiculous.

"Actually no." she replied, as if the question could be a normal statement that would come up in conversation a lot and the question was completely logical.

"Really?" I asked, completely taken off guard by the response. "How come?"

"Numerous reasons." she answered with a sigh. I looked over at her to try to read her facial expression to garner a sense of what she was thinking of, what the reasons were. The rationale for not having a name seemed impossible to me. How could someone not have a name? She was clearly not intent on explaining why, so I kept my mouth shut and we continued to walk.

We came upon a chasm in the ground, it was the kind that had ninety-degree angled faces on either side and went down about forty feet. These were mostly borne out of concentrated fast flowing rivers that ran across soft earth and there was one at the bottom of this gulf. It had chunks of rocks protruding out of the surface of the river, turning the would-be peaceful stream into a torrent of rushing water.

It stood between us and where we were going, in one direction. Walking around would disturb the path that we had chosen to take, so the only option we had was to cross it. The only problem was that it was around five meters across.

The Lucario looked at me with a face that told me that we were indeed going to attempt a crossing. "I don't think I'm going to be able to do this." I told her.

"Sure you can." She replied, encouragingly. I raised an eyebrow at this, as I didn't think that anyone could make it. "If you want me to go first, I can."

I agreed, wanting to see how it could be pulled off. I trusted, by what I had already seen of the Lucario's physical strength that she could do it. I just needed to see what technique could be used.

She walked back several feet, to where the foliage of the woods became scarce and the trees gave way to grass. The Lucario took a deep breath and lowered herself to the ground like a sprinter would before a crucial race. Her arms supported her torso as she dug her claws into the dirt.

"Are you certain you can do this?" I asked, sceptically.

"As certain as I can be."

And with those words she bolted, moving at an electric rate to the precipice of the cliff. As soon as she reached the edge, she used her feet to push off of the meeting of the crag and the terrain.

Her form practically flew through the air at a very high speed, quickly negating any doubts I had about her. She kept her arms at her sides stabilizing her so that she as far as I could tell land on the other side with room to spare.

The feet of the Lucario first hit the ground, at an angle that allowed her to keep her body upright. Her legs bent slightly, absorbing all of the impact that she took from landing on such a hard surface. She was so graceful. If it had of been me attempting the same manoeuvre, I would have most definitely done a face plant into the ground. That's if I even made it to the other side.

"How did you learn to do that?" I asked, interested in how she could carry out such a stunt.

"Practice and lots of it." she replied. Practice: one thing that I didn't have and wasn't about to practice for a week to ford the river.

"I don't believe that I am going to be able to jump like that." I admitted, not embarrassed in the least. What she could do could be matched by few.

"I do not expect you to jump like that, just make it across." Just making it across, that would be difficult.

"Right..."

I looked at the crossing again, trying to judge the distance of the two sides and the heights as well. Wind could also be a factor, as it spiralled up from the natural wind tunnel that the two faces created. There were too many variables to account for; I just had to go for it.

Preparing for the attempt, I removed my backpack from my shoulders and at the same time took out my Natu's pokeball. This was one thing that I said I would never do, but under the current circumstances, it was necessary. I didn't want to risk having him fall off of me as I jumped or crushing him as I landed.

"Are you okay with me doing this?" I asked, holding the sphere within his visual range.

.................

His quick response told me that he was fine with it; I think he knew that it was the only way and with a small push of a button, he disappeared in a red haze. I took the small orb and placed it deeply within my open pack, covering all sides of it with a layer of clothes, reinforced with my arm spike bracers for added shock absorption.

They were definitely needed, as I flung the pack across the void to the other side with a herculean effort.

_Man that bag is heavy._

With a perceptible thud against the soft ground, it landed safely keeping the occupant from harm.

_Now to do the same motion with myself, now that would be difficult._

"Any time now..." the Lucario beckoned, as I stalled out making my attempt. She was tapping her foot impatiently on the grass.

"I'm coming...I'm coming." I mumbled with my hands in my pockets as I stared down to the ledge across the gully. I was scared beyond belief but not wanting to admit it.

I made my way a few yards rear of the falaise and prepared myself mentally for the leap. Even as I did this, I had way too much self doubt. It would be my downfall, literally. I had to get it through my head that I was going to make the jump and only then would I be able to accomplish it.

My left foot was propped up against the nearest sturdy tree to the canyon to try to emulate a sprinter's start at the Olympics. For all I knew, I might have had to be as skilled as an Olympic athlete to perform the task ahead of me. My arms dropped to push-up position, my knuckles digging into the ground slightly. This would give me the much needed traction.

I began to breathe heavier, though no attempt was made by me to move. "If it makes you feel better, I know you can do this." my fellow traveller asserted, calming me down a little, though not enough. I was still terrified. No one could calm me down now.

If I didn't go soon I would lose my nerve. It was now or never. I had to make a decision and I did.

The hardest part of the act was getting the momentum to make the jump. Pushing off of my makeshift block, I took off towards the verge. Every split-second created further momentum that would lift me and hopefully take me to the other side. Correction: momentum that _would _take me to the other side. I had to start thinking positive or I was going to fall to my death.

At that moment, I got it through my head that I was going to jump across. There was no turning back. I lifted off of the precipice with my right foot, gaining enough lift to get me a foot or two off of the ground and enough speed to take me across.

For a second or two, it felt as though I was flying but deep down I knew that I was actually slowly descending and my trajectory was not optimal. The scenery was moving way too fast past my head to get a good reading as to how I was going to land. However, I knew that if I made it, it would not be a pretty landing.

I slowed down halfway there, which was a bad sign, yet it allowed me to judge how far my momentum could take me. That distance wasn't far and as I approached the other side, I knew I wasn't going to make it. My feet were already below the level of the ground.

My arms strained forward, trying to catch the edge of the cliff side facing me.

_Would it be enough?_

In short, the answer was yes but the margin was of accomplishment was so slim that I couldn't believe that I made it. That was until my arm began to slip on the watery grass that comprised of the plateau's surface.

I looked down, seeing nothing but tree roots jutting out of the wet rock and mud below me opening to boulders encased in a torrent of running water. I was scared speechless, not able to utter neither a word nor a scream as I lost all contact with the top of the bluff. If only...

"Gotcha." the Lucario exclaimed as I felt something reach and grasp my wrist saving me from a most certain fate. Now the only thing keeping me from plummeting more than three storeys was her arm. I quickly hooked my leg over the edge of the rock and started to climb up sideways up the escarpment.

My eyes remained fixated on the bottom of the gorge, even after I managed to get up onto the side of the embankment, my lungs pace continued at an accelerated pace and my arms barely supported my body as I leaned back on them. A blue blur moved past my face and slowly moved backwards and forwards.

"Are you okay?" she asked, trying to get me to snap out of it by moving her paw in front of my eyes.

I shook my head a few times, making me break focus. "Yes" I replied, faintly. My face was still very pale and my voice didn't do me any good either to hide the fact that I was still reasonably shaken from the experience. The Lucario looked at me straight in the eyes with such a striking glance that I knew she didn't believe me, which wasn't a surprise. "I'll be fine." I repeated.

She still didn't buy it, but she didn't really want to embarrass me and did not continue to press me.

"Good, because we still have a lot of ground to cover." she said, before turning around with a smirk on her face.

I got up from my position on the ground to dust myself off, noticing that the Lucario had already gotten up and released my Natu onto her shoulder. As I changed directions, I stole a glance behind me to see the canyon one last time. I couldn't believe that I had jumped that length. It looked even farther from this angle.

"Didn't you hear me? It's getting dark." I broke my fixation and turned around, hopefully for the last time from that dreadful landmark to see the Lucario who was standing near my bag with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I'm coming... I'm coming." I replied, retrieving my gear and closing the zipper on the top.

The Lucario had already begun to walk into the forest picking up the pace from which we were interrupted from. Running, I eventually caught up to her and eventually fell into step. As soon as I did, my Natu jumped from her shoulder to my own, getting as close as he could to my neck all the while sending off a wave of energy. It nearly sent me reeling.

Catching myself, I raised a hand to my temple soothing it from the onslaught. The Natu was clearly in a good mood again, now released from his cell. It hurt my cranium to hear him, but I knew it was in good spirits and I had nothing against him.

"He seems to really like you." commented the Lucario.

"You think?" I responded, almost sarcastically, now squinting my eyes mechanically due to the headache I was receiving.

She turned to face me saying "I can hear it too and you don't see me making a fuss over it."

"You must be used to it or something." I replied. The symptoms I was getting from the Natu's speak had also appeared to afflict Jake when I first got them as well. I knew that it wasn't unheard of to be sensitive to whatever the Natu was doing.

"It's a Lucario kind of skill, the ability to refine Aura. It's something that humans have never been able to do properly." she explained.

_Wait, what was she talking about? Aura?_

"It's why you keep getting overwhelmed by him." she continued, before pausing to scale a small embankment.

"I'm confused." I admitted, before trying to attempt the same manoeuvre that she had, only to find that it was harder than it looked. It took way longer for me to get up the rocks than she allotted. I had to literally hold onto the top and roll over onto my side to get over the last boulder.

"That was painful to watch." she said, shaking her head at my near incompetence at any sort of rock climbing. I mumbled something incoherently in response while getting up, somewhat dejected.

"Anyways, what are you confused about?" she asked, totally ignoring what she had just said.

"Well..." I stumbled, not knowing how to start. I guess I should start at the first thing that I didn't know a thing about. "What is this aura you talk of?" I asked hopefully.

"You don't know what aura is?" she laughed.

"No, I don't actually." I answered, truthfully.

"Oh..." she started, realizing that I wasn't joking or being ridiculous and I really did not know what she was talking about. "Sorry, it's just that most people know about these types of things. Aura is one of the more controversial theories on pokemon provenance."

"So what you are saying is that all of the animal life here originated from this 'Aura' then?" I replied, uncertainly.

"Err..." she negated, "It's a bit different than that, what I mean by this is that aura is more of the power that causes things to exist. Not the force that creates, but sustains. You can call it soul, your ka, your superego or whatever else you name it. The principle remains the same. Follow?"

"I'm listening."

"Now in any other sense under any other name, it would be considered a theory. Many of which have been debunked but the thought remains the same. People want to believe that such a force exists, as everyone can tell the difference between a dead and live person or plant. So it does."

"So what does this have to do with telepathy?" I asked, continuing to follow her in the direction that she decided upon when we departed from Canalave.

"I'm getting there." she said to me, taking her vision off where we were headed for a moment before continuing on her monologue. "You see, the mind is a powerful thing. Beings have been able to transform something as large as our world any way they see fit. Buildings are built everyday while others are destroyed. Whole rivers are diverted to make way for electric generators. The question is then asked why can't the body be changed in the same way."

I gave a perplexed look at the ground as I continued to listen to what she was trying to say. I understood what she was saying, but how could it be true?

"I know this can be hard to swallow, but it's hard to deny. Isn't it?" she continued, noticing my expression. "You've heard of people able to defeat major diseases by simply not thinking about their affliction. Their mind was able to overcome adversity by using some sort of force, a way of keeping their body in check and their conscious in control."

"That could have just been a misdiagnosis." I added, though I knew that she probably had a reasonable explanation for it.

"That could be true for some of the cases, but as a simpler example just look at a typhlosion, how are they able to survive from being burned alive when there is a constant fire on their backs?"

"I don't know." I answered as I was confused. I was not sure what a typhlosion exactly was. They seemed like a creature you didn't want to cross paths with if they were constantly on fire.

"Exactly." She asserted. "Everyone takes these things for granted. Modern science can only go so far and when it ceases to explain, it stops. It tries to sweep the inconsistency under the rug and cover it up as it never likes to be wrong." She was explaining exactly what happened to the entire island chain on which she lived. It was so very ironic, I almost wanted to say something about it but I caught myself. Talking freely about the program could get you deported.

"The real answer," she explained. "Is the fact that all of these inconsistencies can be averted using the theory of aura. By the power of the mind, a human is able to defy illness by simply willing it to stop the same way a fire-type doesn't feel any burns when touched by fire."

"So what you are saying is that aura is an extension of one's mind or soul." I repeated slowly.

"Now you're getting it!" she exclaimed, making progress. "Your Natu is able to communicate to us through that same method, only his aura is able to reach out and influence your own. It makes you feel a certain way, almost like how people usually talk which is to convey emotions. What he is doing bypasses the need for dialogue."

"That makes sense, which is if I forget nearly everything I have previously ever known about physics and biology and nearly everything I have previously studied." But then again, I threw all of those things out when I came here.

"It should, as the theory does influence all of the other theories: Relativity, Newton's Laws, et cetera."

"So why hasn't this been published yet?" I asked.

"Well," she sighed "the reason why is complicated. Most that are for the subject are ridiculed for their beliefs. The theory of aura is based upon experiences within the ranks of non-humans, Lucarios and such. You know how well people take to admitting that they aren't the only intelligent form of life on the planet, they most certainly will not accept that their entire view of the world is different than they thought from a Lucario." She spoke the last word wistfully, emphasizing it and it almost made you feel as though she was talking about herself.

"That doesn't mean you couldn't try." I remarked.

"...And join the ranks of the mocked. No one would read anything I could write or listen to anything I could speak." she continued my sentence, derailing it.

"I would." I replied simply.

"I know you would, you're listening right now."

"I can guarantee that at least one more person would listen."

"That's great but I don't have any education, any means of writing." she flexed her paw showing her lack of opposable fingers. "Hell, I don't even have a name."

"A name, that can be given very easily. Just look at Mark Twain."

"Even he had a real name: Samuel Clemens." she sighed, knowing that my case was not valid enough to make her feel better.

"You could always give yourself an original name, a real name."

"Believe me, I've tried. I can't find a good name for myself though. Whenever I think of one, it just feels weird. It must be because you need to be named by another." I glanced over to the Lucario, who I had always called only 'The Lucario' to see how to precede with the conversation. I don't know if it would be right to say what I was going to say what I was going to say next. I was wondering if it would be right to say even though we had only met the day before. "What?" she noticed me staring at her.

"Oh," I was caught off guard by her remark. "I was just wondering if maybe if I could give you a name?" I asked hopefully. She just looked at me for a few moments, and I began to think I had made a mistake; I just had to say something smart. "It would be better than calling you 'Miss Lucario'". She smiled at that.

"Sure, I guess you could." she replied, now in complete emotional reversal from when I surprised her by asking her if I could give her a name.

I opened my mouth to speak, but was quickly cut off by the Lucario who continued her sentence from where she left off. "But, there has to be some conditions."

"I'm listening."

"Firstly," she listed. "I for sure want a human name. Not some stupid pet name that trainers give a name to." she recited the words as if she had practiced going over them before conveying them to me.

"I wouldn't give you any less respect than that."

"Secondly, a unique name would be nice something that not a lot of people have yet not too obscure like Anastasia or something."

"Plus that would probably come with negative connotations as well." I added, citing the Romanov's last family.

"Exactly." she finished. "So also make the name mean something, like something historical or something but in a good way. Not anything with 'baggage'. Nothing like..." she searched for a good example. "Caligula."

"Yeah, that would be a terrible guy's name." I chuckled. "I can just imagine the first thing that would go through someone's mind when you told them your name was Caligula."

"No one would read your job application with a straight face."

"You would be made fun of when you were a kid." I added.

"When you introduced your parents, people would look at them like their head's on crooked."

"So I take it you don't want to be called Caligula or any variation of it?" I asked, wittedly.

"No!" She exclaimed. "It would be nice if people thought about me in a good light, so think about the name carefully."

"I will." I replied, smiling. I knew that a good name would be hard to find, given those parameters. Then again, I always thought that names had to have been picked for a reason; it had to match the person.

The Lucario always had a wonderful demeanour. She was always nice, even though I was embarrassingly weak and somewhat pathetic at tasks she could accomplish very easily. This feeling seemed to radiate from her.

_Maybe it was this aura she was talking about?_

My legs moved as if they were controlled by an autopilot, as I was deep in thought. Scrolling through names in my head, many came up but they were definitely not what I would call prime ideas for names. Nothing came up that was worth mentioning. Every time I got a good idea, I realized how there was some bad connotation associated with it.

_I guess there have just been a lot of horrible people in the world, but why did they have to ruin so many names?_

Before I could think of any other names, or have the Lucario interrupt me from my thoughts, a row of particularly dense shrubs that halted our progress through the forest. I stopped as she searched for breach for which we could fit through, ignoring the previous caveat that we had to continue on in exactly the same direction.

"There should be an opening somewhere." she muttered, searching around the bushes for a space to fit through.

"An opening to where?" I asked, not knowing where exactly we were going.

"You'll see."

_Perhaps we have already reached Jubilife?_

Something told me that we hadn't yet, as it had only been a few hours on the trail and it was supposed to take at least two days using the most direct of routes.

"Ah, here we go." she said, triumphantly while pulling apart two branches that blocked the path through to wherever we had arrived at and promptly walking through them.

I jogged over to where she was and quickly slipped through the same space she did. The sight I was greeted with was incredible.

"What do you think?" she beamed at me.

"It's beautiful." I whispered, gasping at the sight. Even the Natu on my shoulder was emitting an upbeat emotion, which didn't bother me the slightest.

It was a lake, as wide as you could imagine, almost like an ocean. A simile I wouldn't have been able to use before yesterday. The water was still as a mirror.

Its edges were bordered with a fine white cliff face, like I could imagine the cliffs of Dover would be like. The only difference was that these rock faces was that they were much shorter, only around fifteen feet tall and perfectly rounded to the top. They reflected every light beam that bounced off of the water in a wondrous fashion.

The whole scene was bathed in an orange glow, a hue brought about by the sun which had just begun to set in the west directly across from where we were standing. The lake was a lantern and the sun was a match, instantly making the scene that much more beautiful. Light reflected off of the light, coating everything in tones of yellow and red.

It was perhaps the most mesmerising sight in my life and to no surprise, I was speechless.

"This is Lake Verity." she said, very reflectively. "It is perhaps the most beautiful place in the world." Even though I knew that she had not heard of any other place other than the four islands that she would have thought to be the globe, I agreed.

"My parents used to took me here as a child. It's just how I remembered it." she continued before whispering "I never thought I would ever see these shores again." Another small hint at her past, one that I previously deciphered wasn't very decent. I didn't question her about her remark and bring back previous events that would wreck the present.

We stood and watched the sun slowly drift past the horizon, its rays refracting and causing new shades to appear on the rocks, and on the lake. Until finally it disappeared behind the trees, leaving an afterglow of crimson and yellow.

I continued to watch the display, even after it was over until I was forced to ask the Lucario, "So, is this where we will be staying overnight?" I asked, now noticing dark it was getting in the absence of a moon.

"I was kind of wondering if you would be up to just pushing through the night." she stated, slowly pulling herself from the scene.

"Sure I would, I just don't have any method of seeing in the dark." I admitted.

"Oh, sorry." she caught herself. "I forgot humans can't see without light. I'm not used to travelling with your kind." She accentuated her last two words as if in fake pity.

"It's not my fault." I mumbled.

"I guess," she said, looking at me slyly. "There is a good spot to stay the night nearby anyways." she trailed off, probably because she was already moving away from me, leaving me staring at the lake. "Well come on now!" she called back to me, not checking a step.

"Hold up." I said back, running after her.

She turned a few corners before finding the place where she had mentioned and called back to me that she found it. I however was lost among the trees that she had already navigated superbly and I had to ask her for assistance.

"Are all of you as helpless as an infant the minute the sun sets?" she asked rhetorically, not wanting an answer as she walked over to me and literally grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me to where she wanted me to go.

"This is where I was telling you about." she told me, after finally letting go. "To you I figure it doesn't look like much, as the lighting is bad." I struck a match from my pack. "That works too." she added. I only had a few matches, as they were from a survival kit tucked away in the back; I probably had no other use for them.

It was a simple square cut out of the forest, lined with railroad ties. A fire pit and picnic table accentuated the centre of the space which was laid with grass. The whole scene was lit by a pale yellow light, causing the whole place to be visible to me as it was visible to the Lucario.

"Are you sure this is away from any population?" I asked to make sure we wouldn't be found. The place looked as though it was part of a larger campground.

"It used to be, but the owners abandoned it years ago. Something about a road being swept into the lake or something, in short they never returned."

"I take it that no one else comes up here either then." I half-asked, wanting to be extra sure. I struck a second match to continue the illumination of the area, as the first one had already burned to a nib between my fingers.

"Correct, that's if they didn't decide to take our route."

"I believe any humans attempting to take our route must have something wrong with their heads."

"So in other words, you are saying you have some sort of mental deficiency?" she asked cunningly.

"Kind of, I still don't know why I'm here after being almost murdered." I replied truthfully.

She smiled. "At least you're honest."

"I guess so." I replied, yawning audibly.

"You must be tired." she stated, now yawning herself. "I think it was a good idea to stop for the night."

I turned to prepare myself for the night, opening my rucksack. The Natu had already hopped onto the table, closed his eyes and nodded off.

_I wish I could turn off that easily._

"You know I didn't believe you when you said you wanted to travel through the night right?"

"It's the inner Lucario in me, not wanting to show signs of weakness to humans. I thought I was over that a long time ago." she sighed, behind me.

I lit a third match as the second one ran out of fuel and died. It gave me enough light to take my sleeping bag out. I left the single-person tent in the pack, as there weren't enough matches to light up the space so I could put it up. Turning around, I saw that the Lucario had already settled into an imprint in the grass, curling up much like a canine.

Suddenly, I felt guilty having a sleeping bag while she slept like an animal. It wasn't cool. "Umm, I guess you don't have a bedroll, so you could have mine if you wanted to."

"No, its okay, you're not used to sleeping like this. You should use it." Came her rapid response.

"I thought you just said you were over that."

"True." she said, contemplatively. "Are you sure you can even sleep without one, you probably wouldn't get much sleep."

"I couldn't sleep anyways; I would feel guilty that you didn't have anything to sleep on."

"Are you sure?"

"Completely positive." I assured, quickly passing the sleeping bag over to her before my match ran out. I slowly removed my shoes and lowered myself to the ground, taking the same position that the Lucario did a few moments earlier. I heard a zipper undo and some movement of fabric on fabric, which I could make out through the darkness as the Lucario doing the same thing I was doing.

I abandoned any ideas of reading before falling asleep as I didn't want to run out of matches before I reached Jubilife City, I might have to have stopped again for the night. Besides, I was really worn out.

"David?" I heard a feminine voice ask me from a short distance.

"Yes?" I returned, certain it was the Lucario.

"You know our previous discussion of my name right?"

"Yes."

"Have you thought of any names yet?"

I had to think about this for a second. I came up with a lot of horrible names in the short time I had to think of the subject, while only coming up with a few that were decent and only decent. Nothing was perfect. "I have thought of a few, but none that you would probably like."

"Just shoot."

"Okay then..." I sighed, trying to think of the one that was one of the better ones. "This probably will sound bad."

"Just go ahead and say it."

"How about Artemis?" I blurted out, thinking that I was stupid for saying it. I quickly realized that it was probably one of my worst names I came up with.

"Artemis, as in the Greek goddess?" she asked.

"Yes, like the goddess." I groaned.

"It does have a ring to it. I kind of like it." she articulated before saying "But don't mention any more until the morning. I'm really tired and I probably won't be able to focus on deciding on one until the morning anyways."

"Sounds fair." I said, knowing that choosing a name would not be taken lightly. "Good night, Lucario."

"Good night, David." she repeated.

It was a good thing that she said that, as I didn't want to embarrass myself with another name that was subpar.

I slumped my body onto its side as I slowly tried to fall asleep. Sleep did come easier than I thought, even though I was lying against the rocky ground.

"Artemis..." I heard a voice say very slowly, going over every syllable. That was before the world faded into a darker shade of black.

..........................................................................................................................................................

Hoped you liked it, did you notice I also beefed up the story's summary? It probably looks a lot more professional. Hopefully some are still reading my story. I know Ketchum Kid and sub-human are. Thanks for the reviews guys!

Anyways, I want to take the time to apologize in saying that I will be putting the story on hiatus for the next month and a bit while I write a fic for the May songfic contest on another site. If you like In Ruin, you will probably like it. All I am going to say about it is that it involves a gardevoir, time travel and Muse. I'll make sure to publish it to

So, until the next time I publish a chapter,

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


	7. A Friend

The ground was very cold and wet with the morning's dew. The light of the sun glistened off of the tiny droplets of water on each of the stalks of grass as it made its way up over the horizon.

I awoke slowly, the next morning. It had only been two days on these islands and I had already felt like they had destroyed my body, both mentally and physically. Though, through the people I have met here and probably my raw stubbornness to outlast the challenges put up in front of me I had managed to survive two nights.

The abandoned campsite was just as it was the night before, save for the fact it was much lighter outside. I could actually see the square cut out of the deciduous forest that we rested in for the night.

The Lucario had moved since last night. Where she was I did not know. She wasn't right across from me like she was when we both fell asleep. The sleeping bag also wasn't there, which I quickly realized through my groggy vision was draped over me, clearly during the night whilst I slept and keeping me dry from the wet condensation all around on the grass.

I lifted myself up slowly from the ground, taking the opened sleeping bag with me as I rose to my feet, still very tired.

"You're finally up. I thought you had fallen asleep permanently." came a voice behind me.

"What...?" I groaned, rubbing my eyes. I never thought I could have slept that long on such a cold, hardened surface. But, it was that or nothing and I wasn't going to complain.

To give myself a better gauge as to what time it was, I glanced at my watch.

The red LEDs showed the numbers 6:40.

"It's only twenty to seven. No wonder I'm tired." I thought aloud.

"Yeah, and we've already wasted half the day by the looks of it." she replied, jestingly from her seated position at the picnic table. She had her feet up most of the way into the centre of the tabletop, relaxing. The Lucario was a much better morning person than I was judging by her facial expressions and her ability to focus on the novel in her paws.

I was too out of it to respond, but instead mumbled something under my breath and began to roll up the sleeping bag that was now lying on the ground.

"So how long have you been up then?" I asked, trying to make conversation, practically tripping over my feet on the way to sit down at the table.

"I usually get up when the sun rises." she said casually, across from me.

"Well, I could never do that." I replied truthfully, taking my backpack in hand and withdrawing the last of my protein bars from it. I thought I had another one to offer to the Lucario, but when I saw her across from me eating one of them I took the initiative to eat the last one. She must have taken one from my pack when I was sleeping.

"Wouldn't want to deprive yourself of your beauty sleep would you?" she teased rhetorically, clearly enjoying herself.

"You are relentless." I replied, a small smile creeping across my face.

"I try to be." she answered with a smirk, before returning to her book.

I wondered where the book came from, as I was sure that she didn't have it after the incident when we met. The machine that she was put into would most certainly would have removed it from her person. I could tell it wasn't my guidebook as it was a paperback so I wasn't very concerned and just ate in silence.

...

My natu was almost forgotten within the conversation until he interrupted with one of his signature 'hello' frequency bursts, and by jumping from halfway across the table and onto my shoulder.

"Sleep well?" I inquired, not expecting an answer from my companion. I never would have ever dreamed of talking this way to a bird before I came here, but then again there were a lot of things that have happened in the past few days that I never would have thought would happen to me. Somehow this didn't seem too weird. At least I was talking to one that was much more intelligent than the ones back home. Now talking to a crow would have been a lot creepier and probably would land you in a mental asylum.

...

His reply was not in any comprehensible, yet was something deeper, something that couldn't be expressed in words. Just pure emotions escaped him.

The finch quickly took his place on my shoulder as my sentinel. I still didn't know what I would name him. At the moment I couldn't think of anything, just like the Lucario. Perhaps he would name himself, of course when he evolved.

_And what did the nurse mean by evolving? It couldn't be the same process that Darwin put forward._

Just as I began to think on the topic of names, I was interrupted once more.

"Oh, I have something to tell you." the Lucario announced, taking a moment from her novel. "It's about that discussion we had about deciding on a name."

"Do you want to hear some more suggestions?" It was almost as if she read my mind.

"Not really actually, I have already decided."

"Really now?" I asked with one raised eyebrow. "What have you thought of?"

"Hold on a moment." she said, ultimately prolonging her time verbalizing the announcement. "You see, this hasn't been the first time I have tried to create a persona for myself and as I said, I could not create one. This as I have concluded, was because names needed to be chosen for you. So I asked you to give me one, correct?"

"Yes." I answered cautiously, almost predicting where she was leading me.

"Now by me going over the names you would suggest and choosing one would defeat the purpose of having you choose one. So I deliberately only asked for one, by feigning being tired and not asking for any other suggestions the next day."

I knew what she was about to say.

"So I decided upon Artemis. I like it, yet I am curious as to how you found out about it. I've never found another person nor book talk about Greek myths than the one I read. But then again, no one really takes me seriously when I talk to them and I usually get kicked out of libraries." she explained light-heartedly.

"Where I am from, all of the Greek myths are common knowledge." I explained, leaving out as many details as possible. More than likely she came across a censored version and I didn't want to spill too much information. However I knew I could have some fun with this. "All of those tales of that made-up land of Greece. I've always read them as a kid. I always wanted to go to a place full of creatures of myth and heroes and stuff like that." I added wistfully.

"Too bad Greece doesn't exist." she said, bringing me down to earth.

"It's a shame." I echoed, with a small smile on my face.

"So, Artemis" I began again, with more of an upbeat tone, while changing the subject. "How is the novel?"

She really seemed to like it when I used her newfound name and responded with a toothy grin. "Did you ever read this?" she asked. The book she was referring to was a paperback in her hand, to the level of the table, so that I couldn't see its cover.

"Oh, which one?" I asked, not quite sure how she got it or why.

She answered by angling the book slightly upwards so that the title and front picture could be read. I recognized the book as soon as I saw it. Someone said I had to return my copy of Nineteen-Eighty Four to the library before leaving. I must have been too preoccupied preparing for the trip here to remember to.

"I've never heard of it." she continued. "It doesn't sound like anything I have ever read, which is odd as the author expects you to know what this made up land of England is and doesn't describe it well enough."

I tried to suppress a laugh, which almost worked.

"The author also creates this whole world map listing off different countries and locations," she elaborated, ignoring my actions. "But doesn't ever explain the backgrounds of them are. I have to refer to this map at the beginning he drew. However he is very good at making a sense that his entire world is real." The map she was referring to was an actual world map with the nations of Eurasia, Oceania and Eastasia superimposed on top of the locations of real countries.

By now she could see the state I was in, which was turning purple.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I strained out, through the irony of the situation.

"Okay then." she answered, not buying that I was well while at the same time not understanding what was so funny. If I told her I could be kicked out of the program and therefore deported.

"Also, on the topic of made up places, where is this "Madison South Library" sticker on the front of it?"

I stopped immediately. This is exactly what I did not want to happen. There was the same yellow sticker that all books found in my area were emblazoned with to distinguish them from non-library books. Now how was I supposed to explain that?

_I guess I have to improvise._

"It's where I live..." I caught myself. "...It's where I used to live."

"Madison." she pondered. "I've never heard of it. What island is it on?"

"Wisconsin." I blurted out.

_Real smooth David._

"Yet another place I haven't heard of." she looked confused, as anyone on these islands would be.

"It's very remote and likewise, not a lot of people live there." I elaborated, more truthful than I meant to be. In short, once I realized what I was saying I said some inside jests for my own benefit. "There aren't many types of plants and animals there as apposed to here. Plus there's the culture shock factor." I added as a joke.

"Well, you did get this book from there. So far it seems highly intelligent." she questioned.

"Yeah, Wisconsin is not really as bad as everyone makes it out to be." I explained. "With a little bit of information from this handbook, I'm might just be able to figure out this place." I raised the small leather-bound edition of the guide that was first given to me when I signed up for the program.

"That book." she pointed at the small codex in my hand. "It has to be the most redundant book ever. You must know the world map right?"

"Right." I responded unsteadily.

"So why does it give a thirty page explanation of the world?" She was referring to the map that showed the location of all of the different islands in the archipelago "I glanced over it before picking up this one. It's written at such a high level of writing, yet it goes over ever subject so simply. I put it down after it explained the difference between a pokeball and a porygon."

"But you didn't read any further I hope." I said, knowing that the first section just explained pokemon. The second section was the one explaining the whole chronological history of the islands without any censors that the people here would be used to.

"No, I didn't" she looked confused. My question was very awkward in the wrong context.

"Good, it just got worse after that, explaining pokemon centres and such." I half-lied, which I hated doing yet, was necessary.

"Having a book explain what everyone knows from birth would be like reading an instruction manual to the process of breathing."

I forced a laugh to break the awkwardness, but ended up almost choking on a piece of bar.

"I guess some of us need instruction on that too." She laughed, knowing that I was okay when I swallowed the obstruction. I began to really laugh at this. At that moment I felt as though we had known each other for a long time, not like we had only known each other for 48 hours. I was going to say something about how I felt, but I thought it would be the wrong time.

"Well, we should be off, especially if we want to be in Jubilife by the end of the day." I announced, briefly.

"Yes we should, I just totally forgot about the time talking to you." she replied, still grinning. She took a moment to crease the top of the page she was on. As a note of interest, I later gave her the book.

We both had little to pack. I only had my sleeping bag to stuff into my pack as I had already eaten my food supply and Artemis was already wearing my other set of clothes, so in short we were away quickly.

Along the way along the dirt pathway that had once been a road, she explained how we would be taking a marked route for the rest of the journey much to my relief. We weren't going to be bushwhacking the rest of the way to the university.

When I asked her if we would be safe in the open from the people who had attacked us the day before, she assured me that they wouldn't have had enough time to reach us going the other way. "Besides," she said. "They don't even know that we went this way in the first place and they most certainly didn't follow us into the forest."

If only we could be so naive later, but for then I thought it was just a random act of violence by one or two obviously unstable people.

The path we took led us down a winding descent from the highlands overlooking the lake down to the lower lakeshore below. It was a gentle grade and it gave us plenty of time to talk, though at some parts we had to skirt around the edges of the path to avoid the ruined parts of the road where the gravel gave way to open lake.

It was nice to relax and with Artemis, it was if the program was just a thing of the past and I was just on vacation. No gunshots, near-death experiences or brushes with the law and the scenery mad me almost think that I was in Hawaii.

Before I knew it we had already crossed out of the vicinity of the lake and had come nearer to the settlement that Artemis had discussed earlier. I believe it was called Sandgem town or something along those lines. She said it was a small sort of town south of Jubilife. Based upon what I had said about my old home, she said it would be similar.

However, just before we entered the town, she showed hesitation. I noticed this when she started to slow down as we approached the sounds of people. When we could see buildings, she stopped all together.

"Perhaps we should take a route around." she suggested, shuffling her feet.

"Well the only way around would be going over that rock face." I pointed out, indicating the cliff sandwiching us between the land and the lake. The incline was nearly vertical and the town blocked off any way of advancing forward if we tried to avoid it.

"We're almost going to have to go through." I stated. I knew by her body language that this was no fear caused by the events of yesterday. This was something much deeper and most likely caused a long time ago. "Is something bothering you Artemis? I mean, you were very enthusiastic about travelling through here." I implored in the kindliest of tones.

"No, nothing is. I just... Its hard to explain." she fumbled, not showing any sort of weak emotion, yet still reasonably shaken. "I'm not afraid of one particular person or group, but you mustn't have had Lucarios on your island because we're not treated as equals here. If I go into a city, I could be captured or worse and you aren't going to be able to do anything."

"Well, if you are with me, people will probably assume that I own you. If there are laws against theft, then I can guarantee they will leave you alone."

"That's a plan." she started, pondering the possibilities of what this opened up. "At the same time though, I don't appreciate being called the property of someone."

"I'll keep my mouth shut." I assured.

She was still wary, but her expression did change after the conversation. She seemed to be frightened of people but totally fine with civilization, which at the time I found odd. By being able to read, she did show that she had been exposed to it, but how?

"Then lets go." she said, with almost a sigh.

Artemis stayed very close to me as we walked into the outskirts of town, practically rubbing against my side as we hiked into the town. I gave her an encouraging glance as we passed the first row of houses.

It was a very small settlement, but then again I had seen some very small places in my life, being from one of the most sparsely populated areas in North America. It was nice enough. Perhaps not on the same level as Canalave for being breathtakingly beautiful, but rather calm and quiet. It was one of those stereotypical small wilderness towns complete with log houses and a small main street comprised of a few family owned shops with big windows in the front. As nice as they looked, I was completely skint.

People there were generally friendly, someone waved to us from across the street like they knew us. It was surprising to me as fewer and fewer people were outgoing as that especially not where I was from. But what surprised me even more was that Artemis had the confidence to return it.

In fact as we continued, no one gave us any trouble, and it was almost as if there were no riots or protests that ever occurred in the country recently. However, in one store window there was a different story. There was a television set advertised and I guess to demonstrate its capabilities they put on the news channel. To be precise, the regional "Fox" clone.

"...and there is still no word of the Minister of Education's location or wellbeing today after being reported missing for three days now." an anchorwoman announced directly into the camera. This caught my attention right away, and I stopped in my tracks.

"As we said earlier, the PFLO has claimed responsibility in his disappearance; however no one member has come forth with any additional information. We continue to wait upon word to determine if this is a kidnapping or worse." she stopped, expecting the audience to know what she meant.

"However, in wake of the incident protests in several major cities have been called off. It seems that many people are disillusioned by the recent violent actions by the PFLO, which have also been linked to an alleged arson attack in Canalave City where no one was seriously hurt where a store selling allegedly foreign materials." she looked a bit distraught so she nervously shuffled her papers a bit on the table before changing subjects. "In other news, spring break starts for dozens of students across the country today..." I quickly lost interest.

"Are you following that story?" Artemis asked, as we continued down the street.

"Yes I am." I replied. "The person who they took gave me the opportunity to come here to go to high school."

"So that must be the reason why you are travelling to Jubilife then."

"Yes, pretty much. They're giving me an apartment and everything. I just hope these attacks don't change anything though. It would be bad to see anyone get hurt over this."

"Of course, it's horrible when some people ruin stuff for the rest of us. Everyone has to live in fear because of some group of people think their ideas are more important than our safety. But probably they won't close down schools for something like this here." she explained, turning a corner off of the main street and onto the one that lead northward.

"I really wish I was going off to some high school like you." she continued sighing.

"I'm sure you could just apply and they'd accept you. I don't see why not." I suggested.

"It just doesn't work like that. You can only go to school if you are a citizen here. I'm not and probably never will be one." I wanted to say that didn't stop me from being able to be accepted here, but as most times I caught myself.

We rounded a bend in the road and ended up on the main road going north and in the direction of Jubilife City and the wood and stone buildings opened up into open grass and fresh air. I could tell that Artemis looked less shaken as we continued onto the road.

"So," I started, steering the subject away from the negative. "If you're not going to school, where are you going?"

"Oh me? I'm just going to visit my parents, they live outside of town."

"Like in a cabin in the forest?"

"More likely a cave." she laughed at my innocence before continuing. "It's been a long time since the last time I saw them. It has probably been four or five years of searching for them. It is very hard to find people not in the census."

"Well, that'll be nice for you. Say hi to them for me."

"I doubt they would know you, but I will mention you for sure. At least I can tell them that I met one nice human in the years I was gone."

I was about to say something when my thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise. It sounded like yelling with intermitted other noises which I could not place. For a second I thought it was going to be a repeat of the incident that both of us experienced on route 218 but it definitely didn't sound the same.

The sound itself was coming from off to the side, not that far off of the main path but enough to tell you that whatever was making it must have still been outside of the trees lining the pathway.

"Did you hear that?" asked Artemis from my side. By being a Lucario, she must have a more acute sense of hearing than I and picked up on what it was before I did. Too bad she didn't warn me.

However nothing could have prepared me for what would happen next.

Alongside of the both of us was a row of bushes about six feet tall. Now the person wouldn't have known it when he or she planted them that they would contribute to one of the most painful experiences of my life because if they did, they would have probably planted them a few yards up the road.

All of a sudden, out of literally nowhere a large beam of energy shot right out from next to me through the bushes that hid what was behind them. They did nothing to stop the torrent from hitting me dead centre in the chest.

I was sent tumbling back my arms flailing in a vain attempt to try to regain some sort of footing on the grass, but the water was far too much for me to do anything. It wasn't long before the pressure was so intense that it pinned me against the ground until it dissipated.

"David!" shouted a female voice. Artemis was right beside me, but now as I lay there, she seemed a dozen yards away. I couldn't answer, as I had my breath knocked out of me by the blast. All I could see was a blurry haze of a blue object run over to where I was accompanied by another albeit less blue figure.

Then I was turning blue. I couldn't breathe for the life of me. Literally. The pain was intense, much more powerful than the light smacks across my face that I soon began to feel.

"Come on, wake up." I heard a familiar voice say to me, even though I couldn't respond as I was swiped across the face with a furry paw.

"He isn't going to wake up with you doing that. Move over and let a trained human try to help him." Another voice said, also female but it was not Artemis.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to..." A male voice said.

"Idiot! You could have nearly killed him! Return."

"I..." he opened his mouth to speak again, but was silenced in a flash.

My eyes unclouded slightly to show two people looking down at me from a kneeling position. One was a Lucario and the other a human.

"See, he's coming to."

"No thanks to you." replied Artemis, venomously back in her direction.

"Sir, can you please control your Lucario?" the other asked me.

"I am perfectly in control of my self, thank you very much."

By now the blurriness had cleared from my field of vision; however my body still ached tremendously. Plus I had a splitting headache which I wasn't sure if it was caused by the argument being fought above me or from the blunt force trauma that I had suffered during impact.

"Here, let me help you up." The human said, ignoring my companion for a moment. She extended her hand down to me to grasp. Artemis looked at her, and copied her gesture extending her own paw down to me in competition.

More concerned about my own stability, I took hold of both hands as both lifted me up to standing height once more.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked with much labour, after regaining my breath.

"Um... You got hit with an aura beam from my incompetent Lucario. I'm surprised that you are still able to talk properly. You got hit pretty bad." the human explained, dusting me off.

"It seems that two people were making pokemon when we were walking by and another member of my species sent out a misguided attack at you." explained Artemis. "It wouldn't have happened if you didn't force him to fight that Absol." she shot at the other person standing there.

"Hey he's my pokemon; I can do whatever I like with him. If your owner allows you too much freedom and allows you to dress and act like a human, that's his problem."

"How is that even his problem, he doesn't even..."

"You're a pokemon for goodness sakes. Stop interrupting."

"Stop please." I cut in, tired of hearing this person talk about Artemis like this. "I still don't understand what is going on. Who are you and why are you still bothering us?"

"Bothering you?" she said in mock surprise. "No, I didn't mean to its just your..." she paused, observing the scowl directed at her from Artemis's face. She returned it with a look of disgust before starting again. "...Lucario doesn't seem to know her place. Look, I don't care how you treat her anywhere else but for now can you please return her while I am talking to you? It's very hard to concentrate."

"I'm afraid that is impossible. You'll just have to work it out yourself. Now can you please start over with your name?"

"It's Cindy, but I would appreciate it if you don't treat me like I'm of the same level as an animal. Generally it's kind of rude for someone to be treated like filth."

"Well Cindy, maybe you shouldn't be treating my friend as an animal." I pointed out.

"Friend!" she exclaimed "Whatever happened to "my pokemon" or "my Lucario". She's your property, not some buddy you met in grade school."

At this, both Artemis and I started to get really agitated. "Listen I'm not his property. I'm here because I want to be here. Not to fight or anything like that."

"Oh..." the girl said with a sly smile, suddenly looking pleased with herself. It unnerved me, and already Artemis could tell that she had somehow miss-stepped in her interjection.

"You realize I just opened a new account recently to store pokemon. I didn't know you could store pokeballs in the system indefinitely." she said, changing topics.

"And what do you know... I have a spare pokeball right here on my belt. It only takes one to capture such a wild creature such as you." she said, sadistically bopping Artemis on the nose with the red and white sphere as to taunt her. The girl now completely without a doubt now had total control over the situation and she knew it.

"You wouldn't." that was a silly thing for me to say. Of course she would. She didn't care about Artemis any more than if she was a lowly animal. So I changed my tone. "You can't."

"Oh, of course I can. There are no laws stating that I can't I have every right to capture whatever I choose." she stated, as if reading off of the manual to owning pokemon. "And there is nothing you can do to stop it."

"I can simply take it off of you so quickly if you so much as even move your finger towards that button." I promised.

"Now you're threatening me? Jeez, you need to get your priorities straightened out. A Lucario over a human? Thinking like that will only get you another Aura sphere in the chest. You see, I have a firm hold over my pokemon. They don't question, they only take orders and next time I will have him fire directly at you."

Man, I still don't know what was wrong with her. I guess some people are just like that. But regardless, I don't take that crap from anyone. I knew going right at her would do nothing.

"They only obey because they have no..." Artemis put in.

"Shut it!" She yelled back at my companion. "Unless you want to spend the rest of your life rotting in some ball in a pokemon centre, I suggest you keep out of this human conversation." Her eyes glared threateningly at the Lucario next to me.

"Really, do we have to talk like this to each other? What exactly did we do to warrant all of this fighting?" I asked our interloper directly.

"Nothing. I just want another Lucario to add to my collection. I heard they sell well on the black market. I am exercising my right as a citizen of Sinnoh and you sir are standing in my way."

A tear rolled down Artemis's cheek. Her fists were clenched tightly, but she restrained herself. Lashing out on her would only reinforce the stereotype of Lucarios as wild animals while at the same time landing both of us in jail.

"However it is also my right not to be assaulted by someone else's property as you put it. In fact that's a federal charge I believe."

"You wouldn't" she countered, now knowing the fatal flaw to her plans.

"Oh," I said, playing the situation ironically. "I feel as though I have permanent damage in my muscles due to your Lucario. I feel a civil suit coming on." I said in a mocking voice, imitating a lawyer.

"You can't"

"Can't I? Why not? You just said yourself that you would willingly lock up someone indefinitely for doing nothing to you. You were willing to sell her like livestock. Why shouldn't I abuse the law a bit too?"

"Suing me won't stop me from taking her."

"Won't it now? If I can recall, if you go to jail your pokemon become the property of the government and you will be pronounced unfit to own them. They will revoke your trainer's card and while you rot in prison you can go over what went wrong while you contemplate what you are going to do with a criminal record when you get out and a debt you will have to pay me in damages." I finished, winded from thinking of all of the downfalls to her actions.

She took a second to let it all sink in and began to look downwards towards her feet.

"And all because of some stupid prejudiced ideas you have."

"So are you going to turn me in to the cops?" she asked, weakly.

"I don't know yet."

"I'm sorry, just please don't..." her voice tapered, becoming much quieter near the end.

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." I replied coldly.

She looked back up at me then slowly panned over to Artemis who was still standing there, watching the proceedings not saying a word. I knew she didn't appreciate me fighting her battles for her, but in this situation we both knew there was no other way. There was no way that this Cindy would have ever listened to Artemis if I or another human wasn't there.

Artemis had still kept her composure; I sure wouldn't have if I was in her position. She wasn't enjoying the moment when she had finally bested the girl. There was no evidence of a smile on her face as her opponent was looking at her in shame, about to reconcile her actions.

The trainer stared into her deep red eyes for a moment as if to see if there was any life behind them, if there was any need to apologize. To her there was nothing, no soul or spirit. She was just some animal that had been treated too much like a human.

So it didn't surprise me when she turned and left, leaving Artemis and I in her wake. There wasn't another word spoken out of her mouth.

Neither of us watched as she disappeared from visual range.

"Come on, we need to get going." Artemis said unceremoniously, sighing a little as she turned her back and continued on her march.

It took me a moment to follow her. I was a little stunned by the events. I still don't understand what the hell was going through that girl's head when she threatened us.

...

It was only a burst from my Natu that prevented me from dwelling on the events. He pointed as best he could with his wing in the direction of the Lucario.

I practically sprinted to catch up with her before I lost sight of her around a corner.

Artemis didn't acknowledge me as I came up beside her, walking in step. She didn't look physically upset, but looking through her stone cold expression I knew that it was still bothering her. I still don't think she's the type to lose herself in her emotions.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How about you?"

I had nearly forgotten about my own collision with the aura sphere.

"It didn't really hurt that much." I really was surprised by her rapid fire response. "Aren't you more concerned about yourself?" I asked.

"As they say, she didn't say anything I haven't heard before, but thanks for standing up for me."

"No problem. I knew that you would have done the same for me if I was in that position. I hope I didn't hurt your pride."

"Well, you could see how far I was getting with her. She wasn't going to listen to a Lucario. At least you put her in her place for me."

"What are friends for?" I asked rhetorically, placing my arm around her shoulder.

"You consider me to be your friend?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course, you've been nothing but nice to me since I met you. You were patient with me when I was utterly useless at climbing and even when slowed you down, you were kind to me. You're a great friend."

"Wow, you're the first human friend I've ever had." She said, putting her arm around my waist as she was too short to put it around my shoulders comfortably. The feeling of being so close made us forget all about anyone named Cindy in a matter of minutes. In fact everything else in the world just melted away.

"And you're the first Lucario friend I've had."

So we trekked onwards, towards our goal. We attracted a lot of attention from people as we passed them, but I didn't care. Besides, most of the people on the path were duelling with pokemon and I gauged that they were not the best judges of Lucarios.

I began to see the tall buildings over the tops of trees. Large skyscrapers pierced the sky like spears and I knew that Jubilife was just around the next bend in the road.

The sun had begun to set behind the horizon and I knew there would be the inevitable of us having to go our separate ways in a matter of minutes, but for now...

Now was the first time I was truly content on this island... perhaps in my entire life.

"I guess this is where I have to say goodbye to you again." I finally said, getting enough courage to say so only a few hundred feet from the city where I was going to spend the next few years of my life.

"Yes, I have to leave the path here to go where I am going. You on the other hand just have to go straight and you're there."

She and I stood in an awkward silence, without either of us moving for several minutes as we broke our embrace that we had pulled each other into throughout the afternoon.

"I hope this isn't the last time I see you. Is there any way I can keep in touch with you?" she continued.

"I was thinking the same thing. Neither of us have phone numbers. So I guess if you are ever in town I'll probably be in the vicinity of the University and if you want to hang out sometime just ask the front desk, they already know my dorm number and everything." I offered.

"Sure, that'd be nice." She replied. "I'll for sure take you up on your offer, just right now I better be off before it gets too dark out."

"Okay, take care of yourself." I said, remembering almost the same conversation we had when I released her from the ball I was forced to use on her.

"I will. Thanks for everything David, especially the name, goodbye."

"Goodbye Artemis."

I watched her vanish from my sight as the branches of the trees strangled my vision, the impending darkness not helping me see any better.

_At least she won't be gone forever._

I still had my natu for company and there was Jake too which I reminded myself to visit in hospital sometime soon. Perhaps tomorrow morning, as soon as I wake up I would pay a visit to his ward.

I could actually see the building before me. The hospital, the University and the television station were all there, along with some things that they didn't mention in neither the guidebook nor the pamphlet that I received when I signed up for the project.

In front of my eyes was something out of some old war movie, which really contrasted with what was normally such a quiet country.

Tangles of barbed wire crossed the road ahead of me and armed guards held back any people from moving past through the one opening in the blockade. A makeshift guard station was hastily constructed out of plywood where several soldiers had taken another traveller in and began checking through his personal items.

Dogs or I guess I should say Houndooms accompanied soldiers as they patrolled back and forth up and down the line. As I walked up to the guards at the entrance, one of them snarled at me. Something in my head said that they weren't very friendly.

"Hey you!" One of them shouted at me.

"Me?"

"Yes you, get over here." he looked agitated and motioned for me to come over to where he was. "Let's see some identification."

"Hold on," I said, fumbling around with my wallet in my pocket in the darkness until I came upon my owner's card. This thing had saved me twice already.

The man looked over it over, studying the information presented upon it before handing it right back to me. "I'm going to need another piece of ID sir." he said casually. "We are only accepting federal IDs now, so do you have your health card or something?"

"I'm sorry, that is all I have." I answered truthfully.

"Then I'm afraid the city is off limits." I looked puzzled. This definitely wasn't normal. The guy looked at me with sympathy. "Haven't you heard the news?"

I shook my head.

"Oh, they just announced it, something about the PFLO taking responsibility for the murder of that minister. In short, they've literally shut the entire city down. No one gets out; no one gets in unless we do a background check on you. So until this is over..." I knew what he meant.

"But tell you what." he said, switching gears. "If you wait until morning, I can get my CO to see what he can do to get you into the city. There is a campsite just a kilometre or two down the road. Do you need a sleeping bag or anything?"

"No, its okay I have one." I said, nodding in defeat. I was so close... I wondered if this would effect my stay here as a student, but I was too tired. That was for tomorrow and for my discussion with the commander here.

It was twilight, yet I could still see where I was going through the impending night. The sun traced long shadows as it faded below the sea. The road itself was desolate. No one if they heard about the martial law being enforced in Jubilife would want to travel to the place.

"I guess we have to spend another night outside." I said to my natu as we walked. I continued to ignore my need for food. Thinking about it wouldn't change anything. I just had to bank on getting the rest of my money from my suitcase when I got to the polytechnic.

There was a sign up ahead for the campground, saying it was less than half a kilometre to go. Soon I would be asleep and I could relax, away from everyone and everything. Little did I know that my night was just beginning.

A figure bolted out from behind a group of trees to my right, headed straight for me. Just seeing someone else out was surprising enough, but someone running towards me?

As the person came closer I noticed the spikes and the canine head and I had a feeling that I had seen this one Lucario before.

"Artemis?"

"Yeah, it's me." she said, catching her breath. "Thank goodness I found you; I think there is something you need to see."

It's nice to get back to this story, but I am afraid I will be taking another break to write my entry to the newest AGNPH contest. I really am nervous :P. But anyways, I have also decided to revamp the prologue at the same time. So if you want to check that out when I complete it.

Also, I just want to take the time to thank you guys for reading this and a special thanks to those who reviewed this. I thought no one would. You are all awesome!

1000 views on :O

Anyways, until next time...

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

PS, I am also on SoFurry now!


	8. Complicated Accomodations

Artemis led me down the road, towards the place where we split paths, a couple hundred metres from town.

A large sign stood at the edge of a barbed wire fence, designed to stop people from venturing off of the side of the road and onto private property. "Property of Poketech Industries." Read the banner, recently erected by what looked to be a construction company. "Trespassers will be prosecuted."

It was now very dark out, probably past midnight and the only way that I was able to see the sign was via one of my last matches, which was now starting to burn out. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked, waving the match flame until it disappeared. I really didn't feel like being deported and sued at the same time.

"Trust me, you'll be fine. You learn quickly here that these signs are meaningless. Unless they say that they are building something here, it's usually deserted." She assured me, carefully climbing between the strands of spiked metal.

_If you say so..._

I was quick to follow her, I normally would not have but due to the urgency of what she wanted to show me, I followed her. She probably would have done the same for me anyways. So I let her lead me through the trees.

It kind of reminded me of the night before, except this time I was running half the time to keep up with her and her expression told me that it was imperative that we reached our destination as soon as we could.

We turned yet another corner and I completely lost my sense of direction. We could have completely turned around back to the road and I would not have been able to tell the difference. It was if we were on a cliff face, my feet kept slipping on the wet rock as we climbed higher. I know this is hyperbole now but when you are in the dark and have no idea where you are or where you are going; any change in the ground can seem massive.

So in other words, I needed a lot of help to walk up the incline that went up the side of the rocky escarpment that led up to what looked to be the side of a cliff, high above the trees.

That is when I saw it, where we were. Right above the city, looking over the many buildings that even then provided light over the narrow walkway that we were on. I kept that in mind for later. But then there was no time to stop and admire the view, especially with Artemis practically pulling me along, like I was a blind person.

"Just a few more steps." she announced wearily, nearing the precipice of the rock formation before stopping.

We were upon what looked to be some sort of rocky outcrop, the city lights blocked by a cliff to our left. It cast a deep shadow over us and the surrounding countryside; its spire loomed ominously like a ghost.

"Could you mind telling me where we are going?" I asked, breathing heavily.

"You might as well strike a match and look for yourself. It isn't much anymore..." she explained, emphasizing the word 'anymore' as if the words she was speaking were from an obituary. "You do have an extra one, don't you?"

"Yep." I answered, illuminating the area with a faint orange glow from my very last match.

Broken, pseudo-ionic pillars guarded the way to an opening in the cliff face; a cave of sorts. It was perhaps fifteen feet tall by ten feet wide, large for a natural formation. In fact, the outside edge looked almost free of any imperfection from a proper square. It was artificial.

I was shocked that anything of this scale would be found in the North Pacific. This area's entry in the history books didn't really mention anything like this. Not even in the guide book. This looked to be of something from another place in the world.

In fact, the same style looked to be mix of Ancient Egyptian and Greek architecture.

"Are we going in?" I asked Artemis, still in awe of the structure

"Well duh..." she replied, agitated, as she passed me and into the darkness. I normally would say something, but in this case I didn't. Something was awry.

I sped up to catch her as she entered, past what looked to be a statue's pedestal, the claws of an upright individual still dug into the base. Iconoclasm?

The match held up until I reached the inside and could light a torch on the wall. I was truly flabbergasted.

Light bounced off and sparkled on almost every surface. Well, if there weren't holes on every cut surface, on every black granite wall, in the floor. I could just imagine how beautiful this place would have been if it was in good condition. The high vaulted ceilings, the polished rock floor, the marble columns, the gold leaf tarnished as it covered the edges of the room.

There were pockmarks everywhere. Big stone statues had fallen and smashed into a dozen pieces. It seemed as though everywhere in the room had been layered with C4. The damage was not weathering. It would have not caused the holes, while leaving the rest of the room with a polished veneer. The damage was deliberate.

The first thing that went through my mind when I saw this was the destruction of Buddhist temples in Afghanistan. During the Taliban's reign of terror, state sanctioned demolitions of ancient holy sites were commonplace.

I wondered what this place would have looked like before.

"This place used to be beautiful. It was kept like this for hundreds of years, further back than anyone alive today could have remembered." Artemis commented, solemnly. "You would have never been allowed in here, but I guess in this circumstance it does not matter."

"What was this place? What happened to it?"

"I can't answer either of those questions, as no one knows what this place was and I was not expecting it to be in this condition."

I gave her a puzzled look.

"It would be as if the pyramids of Egypt were real." she sadly explained. "This place was built in ancient times. The original purpose of it is unknown, but it was restored to its former lustre by years of work by many Lucario. Since then it has remained a sort of meeting place, many people used to live here."

She pointed up to the second level in the back, now collapsed on itself. "There used to be another room, up there where families used to live. I thought that my parents would be here."

She sat down upon one of the fallen pillars next to us. "My entire life has just been one huge setback, one unkempt promise after another. I don't even know why I dragged you up here. You aren't even from here. Why would you know anything about this place?"

"I don't know." I admitted, sitting down next to her.

"I just kept you from your home. I don't know why. I'm just a wreck." she said lowly, surrendering her face to her hands. "Just go home. You shouldn't be here." she continued, barely above a whisper.

Putting my arm around her, I leant in closer. "Now why would I do that? What kind of friend would just abandon you up here?"

"Most of the friends I thought I had." she answered, inching closer to me.

"But not me." I replied, caringly. She smiled a little.

"Somehow I'd know you'd say that." she propped her head against my shoulder. "Just as much as you agreed to come up here in the first place." She sighed. "But still, I've let you into a place where you really should be. I could get into a real heap of trouble over this."

"I better get going, I guess. I wouldn't want to be at the receiving end of a mob of angry Lucarios." I asked, standing up and collecting my backpack. "But I'm afraid I have the same problem you do now."

"Really, how?" she asked. I filled her in on the whole situation involving the guards now surrounding the city. How I couldn't get into the city and to my home without first retrieving my ID which was inside the city. A problem if there ever was one.

"There are more than one way into Jubilife." She explained. "You just have to know where to find the right entrance points and some good Lucario intuition." she pointed at herself, gesturing that she was indeed an expert at the subject. "I can get you into the city no problem."

"...And I thought I'd be stuck out here all night." I cheered inside. No more nights outside or in an waiting room's chair. I just had one question I was dying to ask. "Would you like to come with me?"

"Somehow I knew you'd say that."

I'd forgotten about the time a long time ago. Right now I just felt tired. I needed to fall asleep and rest my body. Artemis too. We almost lost our step a few times during the steep decent into town. It was obvious why the police never patrolled the area. No one in the right mind would ever think of pulling off a similar stunt to the one that we just did, especially in our near intoxicated state.

However, with the guiding hand of Artemis I was able to traverse the obstacle. She was an immense help. I was useless at these types of things. She on the other hand was probably the most graceful and coordinated person I had ever met. If I didn`t know her well enough, I would have thought she would have been trained in the art of parkour.

On the way I had mentioned living arrangements for the two of us. I still didn't know if I would be allowed to have a guest staying with me when I got to the academy. They had told me in the information package I received a few months ago that I would be able to have a single room, so I probably could just steal her in. I assured her I had no problem with her staying with me as long as she needed to. Hopefully I would be able to find her parents as well.

"So where is this school you were talking about?" She asked, in a hoarse whisper as we avoided a patrolling police officer. From what we could gather with our eyes, there was a curfew in effect in accordance with their search for the missing minister.

"I believe it is around that corner up ahead on that street." I answered jumping around the edge of a streetlight's glow.

"Gee, I never would have thought it would have been on the street labelled 'University Avenue'" she replied with much added sarcasm, mimicking my movements. I gave her a sly glance, which she returned with a laugh.

The street rounded into what was perhaps the most beautiful assortment of buildings I have ever seen. I can imagine that it would have been more stunning if it wasn't undergoing rampant construction.

A road led up a solitary green hill, where several metal and concrete buildings stood as reminders of our current century. The road leading to them was flanked by several high rise apartments, obviously catering to the many students eager for a good deal for an apartment close to campus. Bookstores and coffee shops dotted the other side, all well kept and welcoming, enticing you to continue on to the school.

There weren't any police officers patrolling the area, so we were free to walk leisurely down the street. I could tell that I would come to love this place. I felt like I was completely welcome here. It would be nice to see the place during the day.

The avenue eventually parted and looped around like a cul-de-sac. The main building stood over us like Goliath over David, its huge glass and concrete architecture could have been found in any 'vision of the future' conceived during the sixties.

Cranes crisscrossed the entire campus. They had said that the University had to be renovated for the influx of new collegiate students that would be making their way here from around the world.

Normally there would have only been about a hundred or so secondary level students making their way to class between the couple thousand University students also occupying the campus. Now there would be over four hundred and all of them had to be housed on site.

From where I was, I could not see any way that there would be enough room for all of these people. It looked to me that the dormitory was still being put together. This wasn't a good sign. What were we going to do, camp outside? Sleep in the Gym? I didn't really want to know.

However the truth was much worse.

"National Polytechnic, the world class university and collegiate" I remarked. "Finally I get to see the place."

It was exactly the same as in the brochure when you got up close. Of course they embellished the place a whole lot and made sure to take the pictures at the most opportune angles and of course during the day. Now, I couldn't really tell the different buildings from each other in the darkness as I approached the door way to what I believed to be the front.

Also I would have thought there would have been more people about, but with the combination of spring break, the curfew and the fact that it was past midnight, I wasn't all that surprised.

"Home of the Feraligators..." I pondered, noting the large concrete statue outside the front entrance. It was some sort of anthropomorphic crocodile, complete with a stance like a human coupled with razor blade claws and a jaw that resembled saw teeth. "I wouldn't want to run into one of those."

_I wonder if the school has a real one of these as a mascot._

"Don't worry, you wont find one anywhere near this island. I heard that you only can find them on only one other island and even then they are rare." Artemis explained as we walked through the atrium. "Besides I heard they don't really like the taste of humans that much anyways."

_A real consolation. I wouldn't want one of them to taste me and then spit me out afterwards once it didn't want to eat the rest of me._

"Hello?" Someone else asked. Neither me nor Artemis, although it was feminine. "Can I help you with something?"

I looked around the hallway. It was still brightly lit, even though it was vacated. Well, save one person. The great marble walls dwarfed the singular person in the room, sitting on a stool behind a small counter, jutted up against a wall.

"You look lost." she asked as we approached her.

"I kind of am." I scratched my head, glancing over to Artemis who had just as much knowledge of the place as I did. Nil. "I've got a lot of questions."

"That's what I am here for. Ask away."

"First of all, what are you?" I inquired, bluntly. Artemis shot me a glance filled with shock as if I just swore loudly in a crowded public area. I was completely lost on the other hand, not knowing what my error was.

The poor secretary, who I've now apologized to stared at me for a few minutes in equal disbelief. Artemis on the other hand was trying to contain the laughter that happened to bubble over during the conversation.

"Where did you live before you came here?" Artemis laughed. "On a rock with nothing else on it?"

"Well we did have some Persians and some Mightyenas. Stuff like that. No one that could talk." I added, honestly trying to use the greatest extent of my knowledge of the islands to good use.

That is when it clicked with the girl and she too began to laugh a little, though for a completely different reason.

"You're David Wilson, aren't you?"

"How did you..."

"It's very easy to tell, to put it one way." She laughed. "We've been waiting for you."

"Who has? I'm very confused." I responded, furrowing my brow.

"Mr. Dreyfus. The principal, he has been up half the night trying to get a hold of you somehow. He's been holding back the welcoming meeting just for you."

"I'm sorry; he didn't have to do that. I'm just one person; I could have just been filled in later. I hope I haven't kept anyone awake." I apologized, not wanting to get everyone angry at me on the first day there.

"Trust me; you're one third of the student body. Besides, he's changed the tone of the meeting anyways. This isn't just about hospitality. There are serious matters that need to be discussed."

_One third of the student body? What the hell?_

"So what are they?" I asked, my questions only leading to more questions.

"I can't exactly tell you out here, especially with your Lucario right here."

"I'm not his Lucario." Artemis corrected, knowing this time that the incident with the trainer would not repeat itself.

"Just a friend." I added.

"Right..." replied the receptionist, almost trying to find what euphemism that I was trying to reference. "Regardless, she cannot be here when you meet with the principal and the rest of your classmates. It will mostly be about the program, and you know why we can't have anyone else in there."

"So what am I supposed to do? Just wait outside?" she asked, to the seemingly ridiculous suggestion.

"Right."

Artemis looked to me to see if I could do anything, but really I could not do anything other than comply with regulation.

"I'll see you when you get out then." she promised to me, before turning around to wait by the desk. She stopped in her tracks. "Wait, would this place have a library by any chance?"

"Of course we do, this is a University after all." replied the receptionist.

Her eyes lit up. "Could I possibly use it?" she eagerly asked.

"I don't see why not."

"Really?"

"Yeah, its right down this hall and to the right. It should be empty by this time."

"Great, thanks." she barely said before she took off at full tilt as if she wasn't tired at all.

I opened my mouth to speak, but quickly realized that she was much too far for me to be heard.

"I'm not going to ask." chuckled the receptionist as she trotted over to the door just to the left of us marked 'Conference Room'. She flashed a pass, attached to a lanyard around her neck in front of an infra-red sensor, located close to the ground to accommodate her height. The tumblers in the lock clicked, and a green light glowed above the handle.

"There you go, unlocked. They should be waiting for you inside. I'm going right now to contact the principal and he should be with you guys shortly."

"Okay, thank you." I told her, looking down.

"No problem." she smiled, before walking back towards her post, her golden nine tails flowing behind her as she moved. At the time this amazed me, but now I'm used to these kinds of things. For instance: talking foxes, birds that can shoot water out of their beaks and people being able to conjure lightening from their fingertips a la Star Wars. But that is for later.

Now what was about to hit me next was far more shocking than an intelligent fox.

What I expected to be on the other side of the door was simply an auditorium. You know, with red chairs that could look as though they were removed from a movie theatre. Something that could easily hold two hundred people.

But no, it wasn't. It was probably only about twelve by twelve and no more than seven feet tall. There was a rectangular table, with half a dozen chairs on either side and one at the end. This couldn't be all the people who were involved in the program. There were only two people there other than myself.

"Jeez, I keep expecting to see Ash Ketchum walk through that door every time I hear it open." Someone muttered. He swivelled his chair to take a glance at me, only to find that I wasn't who he was looking for.

He was dressed in what looked to be a Halo: Combat Evolved t-shirt and was wearing a loose set of headphones around his neck. It wasn't exactly what you would expect out of someone who came from a place like Jubilife.

"For the hundredth time you dumbkopf, he's not a real person." said a tired voice, it was thickly accented and female. "See, there is a difference between something on TV and something in the real world. He was a fictional character on a television show and therefore doesn't exist." she continued, condescendingly.

This was actually getting kind of funny, albeit very ridiculous. I took a seat and watched.

"This place is real, and it was in a television show." the guy argued.

"Yeah, because the story took place here. There are TV shows set in nearly every country on the face of the planet. It's not like they make one up for every cartoon." She explained. "For instance Belgium is not a magical, make-believe land just because Tintin happens to hail from the place."

"Tin... what?" he laughed.

The girl looked at him as if he committed an atrocity. "You've never heard of Tintin? I would think that Canada would have..."

"Um... sorry to interrupt your very intelligent conversation, but can you tell me where everyone is?"

She looked at me, after ignoring me for the past few moments, giving me a glimpse of her face which was covered in pale white makeup and black eyeliner. "Hey, I didn't know you came. Why didn't you tell me Trent?"

He shrugged.

"Well, maybe I should introduce myself first. I'm Natalie" She indicated herself and then added in a quieter tone: "...and this is my unfortunately slow counterpart Trent."

"Hey!"

"We are all that is left of the international exchange program." She said simply, before adding "Other than you of course and that billionaire's kid."

"...And we've been waiting for you for the past eight hours, after they hauled the other guy in on one of those giant birds. Have you seen one of them?" she asked, wide eyed.

"What's more important is that he's being treated by the doctors for gunshot wounds. They think that the government is to blame, or that ridiculous terrorist group. I don't know which one is more messed up at the moment." mused Trent.

"What?" I asked. "The government? I thought they were the ones responsible for this whole operation." I remarked, now deeply concerned. This was highly disturbing.

"That is until they turned on us." She explained. "There is a reason why the campus is filled with construction equipment and there are only three people sitting in this room."

"But how?" I asked, bewildered. I wondered what exactly happened to the rest of the program. "Are they all dead?" I asked.

"No one's dead." Came a voice from the doorway that I had just entered through. We all looked. "We thought you might be, but to answer your question no one has been killed."

The room went dead silent.

An older dishevelled looking gentleman walked over to us. I could only imagine that it was indeed the principal of the academy. He had an aura of defeat and exhaustion that hung around him and sucked the energy out of the air molecules around him. His silvery grey hair appeared to show a man that aged at a rapid pace.

That is what you would probably think of him if he didn't say a word to you, like if you were standing next to him on a bus or something. When he began to talk to us, his eyes brightened and you knew right away that he was not the man he appeared to be.

"Nice to see that you made it here in one piece David!" he exclaimed, shaking my hand vigorously before I could even properly extend it. "A pleasure to meet you at last."

"Nice to meet you too." I smiled a little bit, trying to meet his vigour halfway by weakly moving my hand up and down.

"By the way, nice bird you have there." He remarked, pointing to the natu on my shoulder and breaking the handshake. "I can see that you are fitting in well here."

"I try, sir." I answered.

"There's no need to call me 'sir'." he scoffed. "'Mike' would be better." he suggested, not wavering in his seriousness. I was about to laugh but checked myself when I could clearly see that he wasn't kidding.

"But if you must, you can just call me Mr. Dreyfus. But I must ask that you do not call me sir. I can never get used to it."

"Yes si... Mister... I mean Mike." I stuttered.

"Good, you're learning how much I value formalities." He said, giving a thumbs-up.

"However," he continued, changing tones and directions to pick up a black dry-erase marker and raised it to the white board in front of us. "There are very serious matters to discuss, which do indeed require a little bit of formality and now with David joining us, we can begin." he solemnly spoke as he wrote.

_National Polytechnic International Exchange Program_

_Expected Cost: 158.3 Million US Dollars_

_Expected Student Body: 319_

_Director of Project: Hon. James Monroe_

_Director of National Polytechnic's Collegiate: Michael Dreyfus_

"Now, you may already know these statistics, especially if you read the pamphlet carefully." He pointed out. "However between the time we printed those for you, there has been some major changes; Major, irreversible changes."

_Expected Cost: 158.3 Million US Dollars_

"Over the last few months, the government has systematically starved our project of nearly all of its money." He explained. "We currently have no government funding specifically for the exchange program and are relying directly on money borrowed from the Governments subsidy of the university department." He took a pause before asking. "Did anyone see the cranes on the way in?"

We all nodded.

"The dormitories were supposed to be finished two months ago, but now we have barely enough money to pay the workers. They are making very little progress and we only have a few rooms ready for you. I guess it was good that there weren't a whole lot more of you coming here." he added.

"That said, we are still able to house you guys here, there is no problem with that. I made sure that there are three rooms done by today and you'll be able to share the rest of the facilities with the rest of the students since there are so few of you."

He lifted his pen again. "So I guess I have already broken the news to you."

_Expected Student Body: 319__ (4)_

"As you can now see around you, the amount of people here has dwindled to only a few of us. With just you three and one student recovering in hospital, you are the exchange program for this year."

"Question: Why exactly?" asked Trent directly, as if he had been asking the same question over and over again.

He sighed. "The reason is simply that I fully do not understand. All I can tell you is that either the other students were told not to come by the government or they were sent back as soon as they arrived."

"Then how did we get here?" I asked.

"Mainly because you arrived in a window of opportunity that allowed you to be able to arrive here before the Government responded to the kidnapping of the Education Minister and the attack that other student was involved in."

I was about to speak up and say that I was also involved, but waited until I could glean more information out of him.

"With the near death of the student and the death of the only person in power who supported the plan..."

"I thought they didn't know what happened to him." Natalie pointed out.

"That's what they are telling everyone, but it's not true." he motioned, taking the opportunity to continue the conversation on his path. "When they reported him missing, they actually found him dead in his house. Unfortunate really, but unavoidable."

_PFLO – People's Freedom and Liberty Organization_

"The government is preventing an attempted uprising by the People's Freedom and Liberation Organization. If you haven't heard of them, they are a terrorist organization based here in the United Islands. They have always vocalized their opposition to this program and have at several times damaged school property in an effort to stop the progress we are making."

_Director of Project: Hon. James Monroe_

"They murdered him in cold blood." he straight-up told us. His eyes narrowed into slits, as if trying to find the perpetrators in the room. "They were hoping for the publicity, but they will not have such luck here. The government is hushing up the entire event and keeping details under wraps, for the better of course."

"That's horrible." remarked Natalie, in a whisper.

"I know. The worst thing is that there are people that would be more likely to follow these lunatics if they heard that their leader had issued an order to kill a government official. They believe that there could be outright rebellion if there was ever a mention of this."

He studied our shocked faces for a moment before proceeding. "Not to say that everyone here is like that, but it only takes an armed minority of people to be able to overthrow a government. I truly believe that if a lot of people here were to really think about what they were supporting, they would see the error in their mind set. I can guarantee that most people here are good willed." He assured.

_National Polytechnic International Exchange Program_

"However, without wanting to take any chances, the government has deemed it to not be in the interests of the nation to proceed with plans. Without our man in government to back it up, we had no real chance of ever being allowed to continue to operate."

My heart sank.

_So what? I've just been shot at, almost fallen to my death and almost arrested for nothing?_

This was probably the most disappointing moment in my life. I had been preparing for this for months. I would have gotten a free education. Not just that, I would now have to go home to crummy old Madison, Wisconsin (No offence to anyone who lives there, but after coming here I can't imagine wanting to live anywhere else on the planet.)

Trent and Natalie were probably having similar thoughts. I wonder how they got here. Hopefully not the same way I did. They must be just as let down as I was. At least we got a nice room for the night...

Hey, wait a second. Why did he tell us that we could use the rest of the facilities if he had no intention of ever letting us stay here?

I opened my mouth to speak, to voice my opposition or if not, to figure out when I can get home. I was cut off.

"However, as I mentioned before, we do not have enough room for over three hundred students but we do have room for a few." he smiled.

Just before I could react, he changed his tone. "Though I must warn you, for if you choose to stay here, things will be a little different." He warned.

Then as we had his entire attention, he made a decision that would change my life. "I am offering to take you in as students, students from here in the United Islands. If you choose to stay, you will have to live as though you were born here. I have no problem with this, though I cannot ensure your safety. There are real people out there with real guns and I can sure as heck can tell you that they will be quick to use them on you if they find out who you really are. So if anyone wants to leave right now, please speak up."

It was almost as if it wasn't a question. I knew, we knew that we were going to stay.

_Hell yes!_

"This really reminds me about that scene from that movie glory, where the captain of the 54th tells everyone that if they are captured they would be executed." piped up Trent.

"Except its not raining, we're not outside," Counted Natalie off of her fingers. "We're not soldiers, we're not former slaves and its not 1864."

"I think the point was that our situation is similar to the one in that scene." I added.

"Yeah, but I really think that our..."

"Hold on a second." The principle butted in. "Regardless of the metaphor," he continued, chuckling. "Are you all willing to stay here?" he asked, wanting a straight answer.

I was the first one to say "yes". The other two were a little less enthusiastic about their positive answers, answering "sure" or "what the heck, okay". I laugh now at the consequences.

But for any reason we had, it was now set in stone that we were going to be on that island for much longer than was planned.

More than one month, then letting us get some sleep for one night and picking up the conversation in the morning was perfectly reasonable. It was already the early morning hours of the next day by the time I got out of the room.

I was given a key to my dorm and instead of going directly there, I made an about turn and headed in the direction of the library, and to Artemis.

While walking along the granite-walled hallway, I wondered how the school could have known that I would have arrived here in the middle of the night. After later asking Trent, I found out that they had actually given me up for dead and were going to have the meeting about how to move on from the loss of me.

After meeting both of them, I didn't really know what to expect out of them. They seemed nice enough. All I knew is that they would be the only ones here that I could still joke about the last episode of Futurama with. I would have to keep a tighter control on what I talked about, especially about the outside world. I had already goofed on several occasions with Artemis. That could absolutely not be tolerated, the principal assured.

I would not be able to contact my parents, or any person on the mainland. I was reminded that I was supposed to not exist. My family of course would not be told that I was dead, but rather just given the opportunity to correspond with me for the foreseeable future. It was like I had stepped into a black hole.

Also to my dismay, Western Union, not surprisingly declined the check I had sent myself here to pay for the whole month's food. At first I didn't know what I was going to do. I still had to pay Jake back and eat. Something I hadn't done for a long time.

He said that we could have what we wanted from the cafeteria until we got a means of supplying ourselves with money, but I didn't want to become dependent on it. I had to get a job sometime soon.

Thinking about this just made my head spin. I needed rest. Just enough time to sleep and then get my bearings. To relax and give my body a rest from the punishment I had put it through. Artemis was probably tired too, and I didn't want to keep her waiting.

The library was cold, dimly lit and dead silent. There wasn't anyone running the place, no librarian or any other person. All of the desks were cleared and vacated. Perhaps save one.

Line upon line of rectangular wooden desks stood in between an expanse of a glass wall overlooking the campus lawn. A lamp upon the last one lit up a lone figure and a large precariously stacked pile of books.

_Nietzsche, Socrates and Marx. A lot of heavy stuff._

I noticed she was asleep as soon as I came near her. Her muzzle was resting across an opened page of the Origin of Species, breathing gently. She looked kind of cute.

_Get a hold of yourself, David._

Shaking my head and erasing the thought from my head, I swiftly took a seat across from her. Perhaps because I made too much noise with the chair, she stirred.

"Mmmm..."

"Artemis?" She slowly opened her eyes and looked upwards to find me.

"What time is it? I'm still really tired." she asked groggily.

I didn't have a watch on. "It's about two-ish." I estimated.

"Oh, I thought it was morning by now. I've barely had any time to read. I must have just fallen asleep as soon as I got here." she explained her situation. "I can't believe it. This is like the one opportunity for me to get into a library and I blow it."

I think this is what she was talking about when she said that she wasn't allowed into most libraries due to her race. However, I knew that they wouldn't be able to treat her that way when I was around.

"Hey you know we can always come back tomorrow." Her ears perked skyward and a look of shock graced her face.

"That's awesome." she yawned, with a little less enthusiasm than before. "That way I can get some sleep before I dive into another one of these essays. Its interesting stuff really..."

All the way to my dorm, she continued on about how this was the first time she was ever allowed into a library with permission. She explained how every other time she had to sneak in, avoid being caught and then leave via the back door.

I can't imagine what life would have been like for her, but she was painting a good picture with her side of the conversation. I just didn't understand how she got into the position she did. Like, there must be some place where Lucarios live apart from society. As from what she was saying, they weren't that welcome in ours.

How did she end up in the position she did. She was not in our world or hers? Maybe that was why she wanted to find her parents again.

The building still had that Tyvek plastic wrap around the outside. Actually only one side did, because the other half's interior was still visible from the outside. The walls had not been put in place yet, let alone the vapour barrier. Finished, the place would be probably five stories tall and could hold about one hundred students, staying in single rooms.

The door was also missing from its hinges, not installed yet. We didn't really care, as we were just plain exhausted.

"My room should just be around the corner." I muttered to myself, taking the first right down a first floor hallway.

A sheet of clear plastic barred further progress down the hallway past the first two doors out of the building, so I knew the one on the left was mine.

I flicked on the light.

*ZAP*

All of the panelling on the left side of the room was missing and when any sort of electricity was used in the room, you could see the wires arching from not being properly installed. The sparks jumped dangerously close to the pile of bags that was my baggage.

It wasn't the only thing that wasn't completely finished. The ceiling was also missing almost half of its white tiles. The walls that were not either not there or damaged by the builders were not painted.

At least the bathroom, the bed and the television were there. It kind of looked more like a hotel room to me than a dorm. A kind of half-destroyed, firetrap of a Bates Motel, minus the crazy owner.

We both had one thing on our minds, sleep. The only problem was that there was only one bed.

"I guess I'll take the floor." I stated, ignoring the state of the room or even the bags stacked against the wall.

I began to take the sleeping bag out of my backpack. "Don't you want the bed?" she asked with a yawn, noticing what I was doing.

"You don't?" I asked in surprise. I thought she would take up my offer.

"Well, this is your place."

"But you are my guest; I wouldn't feel right having you sleep on the floor." I countered, not wanting to be impolite.

"Well, I wouldn't want to take up your bed. I can see that you're very tired." she reasoned. She looked at me, knowing that neither of us was going to budge. "Why don't we just share it?" she asked innocently, indicating the single bed.

My skin turned white. I sensed a very awkward situation brewing.

"What...Really?" I asked, a little bit stunned by the suggestion. I was not enthused.

"Sure, why not?" she pressed, her brow furrowed in confusion. Clearly she did not see what was bothering me. I tried to not let it show in my expression.

Stuttering a little bit, I managed to say "Okay, if you're okay with it." I scratched the back of my head awkwardly, trying to look not stressed.

"Great!" she said with a smile. "Let me just get washed up." she told me, as she turned in the direction of the washroom.

In reality, I had never been this physically close to someone in my life, especially in a situation similar to this. To me, this was just plain weird.

To be honest, I had never had any luck with dating and I mean no luck. I had never been on a date and I'm nearly eighteen.

Whatever, it wasn't like there was anyone that I even wanted to date back where I used to live. Never mind be my friend. It was probably the reason why I got out of there as soon as I got the opportunity.

The lights were out and my back stood rigid, straight along the edge where my side of the bed ended and her side of the bed began. I desperately wanted to fall asleep, but the position I was in was horribly uncomfortable and I knew that if I moved any part of my body, I risked accidentally rubbing against Artemis in some way.

Artemis on the other hand just hopped into bed and quickly made herself at home, taking a pillow in her hand and finding a nice place to rest. I braced myself, but she didn't come close.

I really, really did not want to be there right at that moment. I really ached to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bag where I could just stretch out and alleviate the awkward silence that hung in the air. At least to me anyway. I was perfectly silent until...

"You seem really anxious." Artemis piped up after several minutes. "Is something wrong? Are you worried about something?"

My shoulder tensed up as she laid her hand on it. "I'm fine really, thank-you." I spoke, mechanically.

"You should really relax." she soothed, absent-mindedly rubbing her hand up and down where she placed it.

"I am relaxed." I sputtered, Goosebumps forming along my trapezius.

She must have known by now the state I was in and what was causing it, but she wasn't going to press me any further. She just tried to put my mind at ease.

Artemis slipped her hands around my arms "Then sleep well." she murmured, giving me a hug from behind.

Not wanting to look like an idiot, I slowly and reluctantly flipped over to meet her. My arms followed hers until I felt the fur on her back.

"Jeez!" I exclaimed, almost falling backwards.

"What?"

"You...You..." I faltered, as if I had seen a ghost.

"Spit it out." Artemis replied, as if nothing was wrong and trying to get to the bottom of my irrational behaviour.

"...Have no shirt on." I finished my sentence.

"Yeah, I never wear one while I sleep. This fur does make you very warm you know." she replied to my shocked look and laughed. "Don't worry; the white coat on my front is just as good at good at maintaining my decency as fabric." I nodded rapidly, my eyes wide. "Now just go to sleep." she said.

In all honesty, I tried really hard to fall asleep. I kept huddled at the extreme edge of the bed, not wanting to accidentally roll over and land on Artemis. She trusted me and I trusted her. I didn't want to break that trust, even if it wasn't on purpose.

The fear of that kept me awake. I didn't want to tell her that, as I didn't want to sound like a creep.

It was probably almost three by the time I finally let sleep sweep over me. It welcomed me with open arms, accepting me into a deep black dreamless sleep. In fact it was hard to tell whether or not I was really asleep.

Throughout the night, I drifted in and out of consciousness, usually due to the impossible angle my neck was at, or the way my back was out of line. Each time, I readjusted myself a little, until I found myself awake, lying on my back in the middle of the night, not feeling any better than when I started out.

Now desperate, I lay on my side, hugging the pillow with one of my hand.

_Hey, now this was comfortable._

This was good, as I lay there, my sleep starved brain began to power down once more. The pillow at my head and at my side really helped me get comfy enough.

Then I remembered that I only had one pillow to begin with. I would have checked right away, though through lower thought processes it took me a while.

The one I had in my hand was softer than I remembered, and oddly textured too, as if it was inside out or something. I knew the one I had my head on was the same satin material, but this was of a down or furry texture.

I ran my hand through it a few times, trying to figure out what it was. It was fluffy, frayed almost, not the smooth flat surface of a fabric pillow.

Now if I had of been awake, then I would have stopped that moment, moved away. But then again, if I had been able to be see, then I would not have been in that position from the start.

"mmmm..." murmured Artemis, asleep beside me. Unlike our previous discussions that night, she sounded much closer.

I felt her shift in the bed, rolling her head over to my direction. Opening my eyes, I was met by two very large red irises, centimetres away from my face.

_This is not good._

In sudden horrific realization of what I had actually been doing, I practically flipped over and promptly rolled off of the bed in almost one motion. Luckily, I caught myself at the last moment by grabbing the bed sheets.

What was wrong with me? I try and do one thing and I screw up royally.

At the time, I was too scared to let out any words. I tried desperately to see what she the expression she wore on her face, all the while knowing that she could see exactly what I was showing on mine. I could see nothing, and I assumed the worst.

My shock turned to sadness, knowing that my relationship with her was probably over, how she would hate me, how I would have lost the only real friend I had here.

I hung my head in shame. "I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to, I was half asleep." I mumbled, on the verge of tears as I sat on the edge of the bed.

Hearing weight shift on the bed, I prepared myself for her response. What would she do, yell at me? Strike me?

I saw her arm extend, moving towards me, but no blow came. "I know." she whispered, close to my head.

Her hand rested upon my opposite shoulder, she slowly coaxed me into an embrace. "David?" she asked sweetly.

"Yes?" I tried to answer, still upset.

"David, I trust you. More than anyone I have ever met. Just don't abuse that." she looked for the best words to put her thoughts into. "I know you were half asleep and you were doing it absent-mindedly. You were just rubbing my stomach, nothing else, so I really doubt that there were any other motives to what you were doing."

I whimpered softly, as she embraced me in her arms. "I know there was something bothering you. What is it?"

I answered truthfully. "I was afraid of this happening, of accidentally doing this in my sleep and making you want to leave."

She giggled. "Really?" she asked, pulling back from me for a second to reveal a warm face. "That's it?" I nodded.

In one motion, she brought me close once again. "David, you don't have to be scared of me. If you were a stranger to me, then I'd have a problem, but I wouldn't sleep in the same bed with you if I didn't trust you. I'd trust you with my life and I know that you have on more than one occasion entrusted me with yours."

I smiled, my heart soaring. She didn't hate me after all!

"Artemis." I began, her ears perking up. "You are an incredible person." I told her as I wrapped my arms around her back.

She nuzzled my neck lovingly, "...And so are you."

We remained that way in silence for nearly half an hour, simply making each other feel cared for, as friends. It felt as though I knew her my entire life, as if she was my best friend, almost my other half. It was odd as I only knew her for a few days. I had never felt like this in my life, and boy was it awesome.

She yawned in my arms, "Perhaps we should get to bed. I don't think you have got any decent sleep all night."

"Sure." I agreed, parting slightly from her. Something made me want to give her a kiss, but that would defeat the whole purpose of me explaining myself to her. I shook the idea.

As I lay there, next to my sleepy friend, I wondered how my life would have turned out if I hadn't met her. If I had just gone to college in my state. That too, I shook from my head, and just focused on happy thoughts of the future, where she definitely was there.

...

Hello everyone here on . I apologize for my absence, but to make up for it here is the next chapter of my In Ruin saga. I hope you enjoy it and tell everyone you know about it. If not, keep it to yourself.

Thanks for the support,

DarkAwry

PS I am going to be adding a chapter to Station 316 very soon.


	9. City Life Part One

I lay in bed, struggling to stay asleep as the light of day finally broke my deep slumber wide open. The light in the room told me that it must have been mid-morning, as sunlight streamed uninhibited through the open window to my right.

Mmm... It sure felt good to get a decent night's sleep after being so tired and so sore after completing the last few day's punishing journey here to my new home and a new start.

Rolling over in bed, I tried to retain the last slice of darkness that could possibly be saved by covering my head with a pillow to block out the sun.

However, as I slowly found out, it was all in vain as no matter how thick a barrier I put in between my body and the outside world, my internal clock which I had mistakenly forgotten to reset to the country I was currently in was now set to the time back in my old home in America. It was now ringing an alarm, even though I was nearly collapsing from exhaustion the night before, I still needed to get up at some point.

I groaned as I removed the pillow from my face, and placed it behind my head as I lay sprawled in an odd way across the centre of the bed, taking up most of its surface area with my spread eagled position. This was so much better than the hard ground of yesterday.

As I became more aware of my surroundings, I noticed a key detail was missing from my field of vision. In this position I would surely have at least come in contact with Artemis at some point just due to the size of the bed. I opened my eyes expecting to see her somewhere in the room, but was greeted with no such sight, just the same, slightly brighter room that greeted me the night before.

The same small table and chairs, the same analog television set stacked above a simple dresser still empty and lacking the contents still in my bags stacked against the wall. The same one still crackling with static built up by the arcing of exposed wires.

I could hear the water running in the washroom attached to the room, indicating that at least on other person was still in the room, most likely Artemis, so I didn't worry.

Not wanting to disturb her, I lay back down and just relaxed, not thinking about gunfights, schoolwork or home. This was spring break after all. Classes didn't officially start for another week, although the principal more likely than not would have to take up some of the next few days.

As for the threat of violence that seemed to hang over me like a black cloud for the past few eventful days well, there was no chance of anyone knowing that I was here. I had ceased to be David, the foreigner and was now a full citizen of the United Islands, complete with full identification. Besides, why would they need to harm me now? I was one of them.

Unless there was something I was missing, then I could potentially end up like Jake or worse. That reminded me. I needed to visit Jake at some point today. Poor kid, caught up in all of this. I wonder if they had found anything new about the people who did the act.

Curious, I grabbed the channel-changer and flicked on the TV. I found it kind of surprising that they would have given everyone who came here to the program a television set, but then I guess they knew that no one would be able to take one from home and would probably not want to buy one here only to return in a month, leaving it behind. It kind of made the place seem more like a hotel room rather than a dormitory.

Pressing the power button, the TV buzzed into life, showing snow. I swear I saw a cable attached the night before, so I hit the channel up button causing it to cycle through half a dozen blank channels before eventually resting on BBC World Service. Definitely odd for an area supposed to be under total media blackout. The next channel was an American station, the next one in Spanish. I guess they assumed that anyone watching from here would have been coming from one of these places and would want to see something from back home. Right now, I wanted the opposite.

After scrolling through several more of these channels, none of which were of interest to me, I came upon the ubiquitous Vulpix News, this time in the form of a twenty-four hour all news channel, not the one that only came on at certain hours of the day. A news ticker scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

"...has been no news since the event. One person is dead today after an arson attack the city of Canalave today... Several were injured after riots broke out in the city of Vermillion today PFLO suspected..."

It seemed like the entire country was going to hell. One minute someone was getting killed in one town, another time rioters loot near half of another town's shops and burn down a few houses. Why did I stay again?

Oh right, since I've been here I haven't seen one person who has demonstrated any of these behaviours to that the media was playing the whole situation up to be. Even the one person who agreed with these people's standpoint on immigration certainly wasn't going to do the stuff these people were doing. Everyone here seemed genuinely nice, if a little xenophobic, but that would be normal after being stuck here without any outside contact for a century and a half.

The public support was just not there. Otherwise, I would have been on the first boat heading home the day I arrived here in Jubilife. It seemed as though that all of the previous week's events were not caused by anyone who had lived ever lived on these islands at all. This idea was reinforced by what I saw next on the screen.

I knew as soon as I saw it, where it was and almost for sure who had been killed.

"...and we are going live to the scene of the crime, which occurred early this morning."

A rather attractive woman was standing in front of the charred shell of a building, obviously gutted by fire. The outer brick walls had collapsed inwards, with whatever wasn't in pieces being held up by the remains of whatever was inside. Some wispy grey and black smoke rose from the place where the front door most certainly stood.

"This can only be described as appalling and savage behaviour. Today, at the hour of five in the morning, several armed men broke into this downtown Canalave building and within minutes, the building was up in flames."

It was weird seeing the building like this. After all, I had just been there with Jake a few days ago.

The sign above the door must have surely set the band of people off. A roving rogue group of angry young men? Probably. The sign filled with Japanese characters was now as destroyed as the rest of the ill-fated block.

"The police and fire department arrived on the scene as soon as they heard a call from a nearby resident a few minutes after the attack. The 911 call said that he could see flames shooting out through the upstairs window, where we can now confirm the fatality occurred."

Thugs, murderers, scum. I wonder what they were thinking.

"The man, who has died during the attack has been said to have not known his attackers. Naoto Yamada was said to have resided in the area for over sixty years, and has been said to have kept to himself mostly. There is literally nothing to connect such an act like this with him."

Except for the fact that he was an immigrant, just like me and there was one small group of people with a whole hell lot of hatred, enough for the entire archipelago. The PFLO.

"The group that calls themselves the PFLO has claimed responsibility for the actions of this morning, citing no specific reason as of this time."

I pushed the power button on the remote control in frustration.

No specific reason. Perhaps they were looking for something. Looking for what? They knew that he was an immigrant. Maybe they knew that I was one as well. He knew I was.

The dread of being found and perhaps torched like him was perhaps the most horrible thing I could think of at that moment. I shuddered at the thought of being burned alive, feeling the crushing weight of the walls as they collapsed in on my head.

It made it odd to think that this exact thing had happened to someone who I only had just met a few days ago. Was I next? Paranoia was not your friend. Especially in a situation like this. They had no way of finding out I'm here right? I'm not the same person that came here on the kingfisher. There was no real reason to be frightened, but since I had never been ever in a situation like this, I was having a hard time getting the thought out of my head. I felt as though the next thing I was going to be the thing that did me in.

"Hey!"

I literally jumped a few inches into the air when I heard the voice a few inches from my ear before tumbling off of the edge of the bed.

I looked up at what my unconscious mind would think would have been my assailant. It was not at all what my preoccupied brain was expecting.

"Jeez... You gave me quite a scare." I gasped, looking up to see the face of my Lucario friend, with my bird sitting on her shoulder. Her fur was damp, yet she was still dressed in the same clothes I had given her when I met her.

"Didn't mean to." She replied, extending a hand. I grasped it and she pulled me up with little effort. "You seem really jumpy today."

"Really?" I asked, trying to deny the allegation trying to avert any attention to what I was actually thinking. "I just wasn't expecting someone to yell "hey!" into my ears at that moment." I explained simply.

"Well, how was I supposed to say it then?" she asked sarcastically.

"I don't know. Perhaps I am a little bit nervous." I admitted.

"Well don't be. What could you possibly be nervous about?" she asked innocently.

It was pretty hard to manoeuvre the subject in a way that would explain the anxiousness I was feeling without at the same time explain the sensitive program. I came up with something very similar to substitute for why I was actually frightened.

"I'm scared Artemis. I think that those people that tried to kill us back on route 218 could come back for us here." I said bluntly. "I was just watching the news and I saw that a similar attack happened near there again today."

"I'm sure we'll be safe here. They couldn't have followed us. Besides, there would be no reason for them to want to anyways." she reasoned.

"We never quite found their motive." I replied, at the same time echoing my same opinion of the arson that happened this morning.

"So what makes you think that their motive was worth it to track us down all the way here then? I mean, there's almost a zero chance of that happening anyways, even if they wanted to." She countered.

"I guess." I muttered. "I've just never been shot at before and this has been the first time I've really been alone with my thoughts since it happened."

"Trust me, getting shot at never gets easy to deal with, no matter how many times it happens to you. You just learn to look at things rationally. It's easy to become paranoid, but being paranoid for no reason can ruin your life."

I guess she was right. I was just one immigrant after all. They had no real reason to kill me beyond that fact. It was no reason to go looking for me. If they were going to make an example out of somebody, they wouldn't pick someone who wasn't on the register and wasn't supposed to exist.

It was more likely they stopped Yamada's store because he was openly selling wares that would help dissuade people from sympathizing with the PFLO. He was open about the fact that he wasn't born here. I on the other hand was trying as best as I could to blend in. I was attracting no attention.

Besides, there was a probable chance that they would not even know I'm even here. The attack on route 218 could have been totally unrelated.

"Perhaps you're right." I agreed, while at the same time wondering why she said that she had been shot at before. A possible motive? I didn't want that to be the case.

I changed the subject to something less serious. "I see that the shower is working?"

"Yep, it is." she replied, changing her tone. "It works great; I've never felt this great in ages. However, the rest of the bathroom is still unfinished, there is a wall missing like in here, but the sink is still usable. Not to sound ungrateful or anything."

"Not at all." I replied casually. "They should be here to fix this place soon. At least it's better than what I've heard about university dorms having communal bathrooms." That idea just irked me so much.

"Do you know if they have any clothes washing machines here?" she asked, thinking that I had more knowledge of the place.

"For your clothes?"

She nodded, indicating the rather ratty state of the ones I gave her when I met her.

I scratched my head absentmindedly. "I'm not sure. I'll have to check. But for in the mean time, you can just have another set of my pants and a shirt."

"Great!"

"I just need to sort through these bags for them." I added.

"That's going to be a chore." she said, scanning through the endless stacks of baggage lined up against the exposed wall. "But there's no sense in just standing here doing nothing."

"You said it." I agreed, diving into the heaps of suitcases.

It literally took me almost an hour to not find what we were looking for. I looked through almost every bag and I still could not find the bag with the clothes in it. Artemis too was having no luck, until of course she stumbled upon something I hadn't really explained to her yet.

"What are these?" she asked after several minutes of sorting through the stuff in the bags. I glanced over to find out she was holding up the pair of silvery Lucario bracers that I had acquired in Canalave. "Do you like pretending to be a Lucario or something?" she asked with a small laugh.

"Actually, I got those just for the historical value, plus because they just looked cool." I answered sheepishly.

"Well, they were never used, I can tell you that." She added, surveying the bracers like she was the ultimate expert on the subject of antique weaponry.

"Oh, how can you tell?" I asked, as I was curious of her methodology.

"You see, there would definitely be some sort of markings or scratches on the outside metal. This looks as if they were never even touched. See," She said, pointing to the veneer, waiting for me to come closer. "How Lucarios fight with their arm spikes requires them to come in contact with the spikes of another Lucario."

"Interesting. I didn't know that." I remarked.

"Very few people know that, as there are very few occasions when two Lucarios fight each other. Most times, people just send them out to fight other; unintelligent pokemon and the practice must be adapted. However, even in that case, these would have to have some sort of wear marks on them."

"I guess the person who would have used this would have never used this for fighting then." I got to the conclusion a little half heartedly.

"They do look to be of the right materials though." she reassured.

"So you think they could actually be used?"

"Well there's only one way to find out. Put one of them on." she said, handing me the bracer she was examining before standing up.

"Are you suggesting..." I started to ask, following her eyes and trying to find out if she was asking me what I thought she was asking me.

"Just trust me. You wanted to find out if these worked right?"

I nodded.

"Then stand up and we'll test them."

When I was standing, she said "Now the first rule of fighting with arm spikes is knowing how to block. If you can't block, your dead in a real fight and you won't be able to strike your opponent at all."

"Not that I'm planning on impaling anyone on these spikes." I said back, not expecting a lesson on fighting.

"Yeah, but if these could have ever been used, they should be able to stand up to at least some punches, right. They shouldn't separate from the leather or break off of your wrist."

"Did you just say break my wrist?" I asked worriedly, not at all certain that this would be a safe experiment.

"No, the leather strap may break around the places where the metal is held into the bracer. I mean it could happen, but your wrist will not possibly be injured at all. I promise." she reassured me. "Now hold up your wrist so that it's parallel to your face."

Everything in my head was screaming not to go along with it. The rational side of my brain was attempting to suggest a better, perhaps safer in my opinion way of testing the bracers. However, trusting in Artemis, I did no such thing, I just remembered the day I met her, when I was in a similar situation.

I held still, while I braced myself for the impact of her spike-enhanced punch that she was going to deliver to my untrained wrist. She knew what she was doing though. I assured myself of this before moving the metal clad wrist in front of my chest, parallel with my body.

Closing my eyes to save myself from involuntarily flinching from her actual blow, I waited...

...And I waited some more. If I could have looked at my watch, I most surely would have, just to see how many minutes I had actually been standing there. Should I dare to open my eyes? Look around, perhaps?

As I was slowly opening my eyes, I noticed that she was lining up. I shut my eyes violently, bracing for the impact.

A spark, a flash of electricity blinded me for a fraction of a second as I was struck, dead centre at the piece of metal that was protruding from my wrist. The force of the impact sent my entire arm backwards, along with the bracer that I had on.

I caught my arm in a panic, before it went back too far and brought it up to my face to check how it held up, to see if either the leather or my skin had been damaged in the event. I was too shocked to feel for myself.

"It worked?" she asked hopefully, having complete confidence that she did not harm me.

I looked to make sure, noting that there was one small scratch on the shiny metal where her arm spike collided with mine. The resin that had held it against my arm was still attached strongly.

"It appears so." I squeaked.

"Then next time, don't be so frightened. That way I can teach you to respond to something like that." she suggested. "...because next time I won't be so easy on you."

Little did I know that I would need that training later on, but for now, I just simply stared in amazement at the design of the bracers, as Artemis quickly jumped into a new pair of pants and a shirt, in preparation to leave.

"Ready to go?"

"Yep." I answered, removing the weapon from my arm and placing it next to the other one on the bed as my little bird climbed up onto my shoulder.

I hesitated before walking out the door, as though some invisible force would ambush me the second that I stepped outside the door, but remembering what Artemis said, I proceeded.

Two half finished buildings, monuments to the failed student exchange program guided our way to the main collegiate building on campus. It was easy to navigate, even without a map or directions. The architects had designed it that way.

The main collegiate building was located in a separate location from the rest of the more prominent university wing. The building I had stumbled into the previous night was sort of an intermediary between the two separate but equally integral parts of the institution. It was sort of an administrative centre and housed some of the university's larger auditoriums.

Even if I did need help navigating the area, the campus was almost completely deserted, at least the section I was in. Most people from the collegiate were not keen on staying here for spring break. I could imagine why, since many hadn't seen their families in months.

So, in turn, when we both reached the collegiate's cafeteria, it too was near empty, except for the small minority who decided to stick it out over the week that was as the principal had said was mostly for going away.

We descended the spiral staircase that led down from the main floor, into the glass and steel building's sub-basement, which was lined, row upon row of benches with small rectangular tables, suitable for three or four people per one.

It was a welcoming scent, fresh food, just prepared opposed to the alternative, which had been since I had left Canalave, nothing.

"Over here!" I heard a voice shout from halfway across the room. It was easy enough to pick out who said it, as there were only around five people there and there was only one that was waving to us with both hands.

I gave a small wave back to say that we would be right there. Artemis looked at me questioningly, as if to ask who the person was. It was in fact the same girl from orientation the previous night. Not to draw from stereotypes, but all I could remember was that she was the girl from Germany who dressed in the standard gothic style. I hadn't really talked to her yet in earnest.

"Nice to see you again." she said, through a mouthful of eggs.

"Likewise." I replied, still standing.

"I thought I was going to sit down here alone." She was about to say something and then paused, noticing the blue on black anthropomorphic fox standing next to me. "I don't believe that we've met." she stated, shakily, unsure of what to make out of my companion.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Natalie, this is Artemis and Artemis, this is Natalie. While you two get acquainted, I'll go and get some breakfast."

"Okay, bring me back some toast, will you." she asked.

"Sure thing."

I chuckled to myself, wondering how the two of them would them would react to one another, before making my way to the food.

The dining hall was created specifically for the collegiate part, and as a result was a little bit smaller than the full sized University one across campus. However, it still had most of what anyone from anywhere around the world would want for breakfast. It was good food, and I could sense that I was going to be eating the majority of my meals here.

I made sure to hand two meal tickets to the cafeteria worker, before retrieving a plate. These freebies weren't going to last forever, and because there were two of us, they would run out halfway through the month. I took note of this as I lifted a few pieces of toast on to both plates as well of course a bowl of seeds for my natu.

I needed to get a job at some point.

"So you say you were attacked when you were hiking here?" asked the thickly accented Natalie, very worriedly.

"Yes we were." Answered Artemis, now chatting comfortably with the person who she had only just met. "The person who was with David, who was supposed to come to the school as well, was injured pretty badly."

"Yeah, he's in hospital just outside of the campus right now actually." I added, sitting down next to Artemis, placing both mine and her plates on the table.

"Oh, I hope he's okay." Natalie interjected.

"I don't know how he's been doing. We haven't seen him since they airlifted him here." Artemis explained.

"We'll have to go visit him later today." I suggested.

"Sure, you'll have to introduce me."

"And me..." Artemis added. "I've still not met him yet, remember."

"That's if he's been stabilized, but I'm pretty sure he'll be okay by now." I reminded. "And I'm sure he would want some company after being stuck in a hospital for so long."

"You know, I'll pick up a gift on the way." Natalie stated, in the hopes of raising spirits. "Want to pitch in?" she asked.

"I would, but after my Western Union money order failed, I'm completely broke." I emphasized this by pulling the lining out of my pockets. "How do you have money?" I asked inquisitively.

"The information package said to bring money when we arrived here just in case the money orders failed. You must not have read that and not brought any extra." she said simply.

"He did, he just blew it on a pair of bracelets." Artemis explained, humorously.

Natalie snickered loudly. "They must have been some really nice pieces of jewellery."

"Regardless, I still need a job." I interrupted, bringing everyone back to reality.

"If you want a job, the principal mentioned a space near the TV station where people frequently post 'help wanted' ads and other stuff." Natalie suggested, citing a previous meeting which I did not attend.

"That'd be great. Do you know where it is?" I asked hopefully.

"Oh here, I'll draw you a map." She said, taking out a pocketbook from the side of her pants.

She drew a crude drawing of the school and the roads intersecting the boulevard that led up to the collegiate. As she did this, she explained exactly how to navigate the city, coming across as if she had already similarly been to the same site.

"Thanks." I said, as she finished and handed the small piece of paper to me after ripping it from her booklet.

"Now, as we both have a job to do." She chuckled, as she stood up to leave. "I will meet you at the hospital at noon."

"Sounds good." Both Artemis and I responded, as we continued to eat, while Natalie on the other hand headed for the exit.

"She's a nice person; she treated me as though I was human, just like you." Artemis remarked, chewing on a piece of toast as Natalie walked away.

"That's because she's from Germany. They don't have Lucarios there, kind of like where I'm from."

"Is the island near where you used to live?" Artemis asked, unsure of what I just said.

"More or less." I answered slyly, as I finished my breakfast.

"Now what?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"I suggest we find you a job, and then go to the hospital like she said. Then perhaps we could go to the library, if you didn't already have other plans." she suggested, squaring away both our plates and standing up to replace the cafeteria trays.

"None at all. It would be nice to relax for a bit." I agreed, following her out the door.

We quickly made our way out of the campus, taking a route that went straight to the middle of town, keeping the deadline of twelve o'clock in mind.

The square was very similar to those found in Western Europe during the nineteenth century, with a few modern enhancements. For instance there was a television station at the top end of it, with a large LCD display streaming live video from the nation's public broadcaster, and several electric billboards were present on the baroque buildings that flanked us as we proceeded across the brick surface below us.

I looked around to no avail. Natalie was not there. The place where she said she was going to go was there alright. However, instead of it being filled with potential employees, it was filled mostly by school children, all too young to work. Interspersed in between them however, was some serious job seekers, all having several white sheets in their hands, and scanning the cork boards for more, taking what could have been our only food tickets for the next few months.

We both quickly trotted off towards the message boards, drawing little attention.

"So what did you have in mind for a job then?"

"Depends on what they have there. Perhaps something with a little bit better pay than minimum wage, but I'm not fussy. I'd take anything at this point."

"So if there was a position open for a Miltank farmer's aide. I hear that they pay the manure haulers well in that farm outside of town." She snickered.

"Hopefully, there is something else other than that." I replied. "Like this for instance." I noted, taking up one of the last white eight by elevens, scanning the page with my eyes. "This restaurant needs someone to clean out grease traps in their deep fat fryers."

"That is one big step above my idea." she said sarcastically.

"Well, your idea was meant to be the sickest morbid job you could think of."

"Actually, it's the only one other than the one you picked up." She stated simply, and disappointingly correct. "So in other words, you can either clean up after the miltanks when they're alive or after they've been slaughtered, converted into liquid and then boiled."

"...And they both sound so appealing..." I joked, reading the fine print on both leaflets. "I can just imagine doing both jobs."

Artemis looked at me with one eyebrow raised. "You thought I was morbid."

There just had to be another way to make money here. I was prepared to do either job, grudgingly in order to stay here of course, but just to be on the safe side, I was going to take one last look across the other sections of the cork board that an unwitting employer might have accidentally placed their advertisement.

There were even less people centred around the second bulletin board, mostly graced by lost pet advertisements and several classified ads. In fact there was literally no one. Now why was this, there was a lot of people here when I arrived.

I glanced over to my left. There, the group of school children had gathered around a single larger form poster, situated close by to the rest of the notices posted on the boards.

Curious, I walked over, letting the pieces of paper in my hands drop to my sides.

"There's no way I'm not getting that thousand dollars." One of them shouted, from the front of the mob.

"Yeah right, I beat you so badly just a few days ago after school!" Another pointed out, in a rather pitchy treble.

"Now who's getting what money now?" I asked, trying to determine what exactly they were bickering over. It sounded like something that required skill, rather than a random lottery-type deal.

They all turned around in unison, giving me and my companion a blank stare. They were somehow too scared to give an answer.

"I'll just have to find out myself then." I muttered, advancing on the wall.

The crowd parted, like how oil separates itself from water. They formed a sort of funnel that directed me straight to the full length colour poster.

"1st Annual Battle in the Square." I read quietly. "Sponsored by Poketech. Winner will be awarded a free tour of the new Poketech Headquarters outside of town and will also receive an additional thousand dollar monetary bonus."

Wait a second, this was a fighting competition. A boxing match right? Or something along those lines. A test of personal endurance, as I thought.

"Use any weapon necessary, any physical or special attack is permitted." The poster sounded as though it was legalizing any sort of weapons. Odd considering that there were kids lined up to sign up for this competition. It did explicitly state that all weapons had to be blunt and all had to not have intent to permanently damage or kill your opponent. Made sense.

"For new people to the sport only. No one with a trainer's card may enter."

That was all the fine print. Sure as heck I was going to enter into something like this. All I would have to do was beat on a few kids, not too hard that is. It wouldn't be too hard to neutralize any threat these kids would give me. No wonder that they would be scared of me entering.

I signed my name, slightly below a poorly printed name, for the preliminaries that would be held the next day.

I knew that I would have to train at least a little bit, to make sure that I would be prepared if the odd person my age or older decided to enter, but for the most part, I believed that I would have a whole load of free money by the end of the week.

I was really naive.

Okay, I'm back from the dead! Anyone miss me?

So, as I said at the beginning of the chapter, this is more of a product of my revising work I have done on the other chapters. As a note, an updated version of all the chapters will be up shortly for everyone who has been waiting for them. Sorry to disappoint you gentlemen, but the updates are really not going to show if you re-read them. So don`t bother looking for what I erased or rewrote.

On another note, I have the displeasure of informing you that I will be going offline for the next month or two to write one of my own non-fanfiction works that will not show up on this site or any other of my mirrors. I wish this wasn`t the case, but recent events have proven that I will have to take the time off in order to completely focus on a work that I have been commissioned to write. I may get to write a bit in between my other project, but I would not count on it.

I do promise this: At some point, this story will be finished.

Thanks for bearing with me,

DarkAwry


	10. City Life Part Two

12:00 Noon.

"What exactly do you want me to do? Shoot balls of aura out of my hands?" Asked Artemis, directing her question to Trent who had his eyes fixated on her. She was frustrated with his constant badgering of questions all related to her species; mostly she either just shrugged them off or countered them with a little bit of sarcasm. It was if he was examining a specimen.

Trent had obviously, from his attitude towards Artemis and general prior knowledge of the nation around us had watched the ever popular television show that had invaded the homes of many in the world, which just about happened to draw its inspiration from this place. Of course, it was highly romanticized and simplified, so when he asked a person what their Pokémon's hit points were, all he got in return was a few blank stares and general bewilderment.

Just because a game like Earthbound took place in North America doesn't mean that all of the snakes and dogs in the continent had standardized hit points or that if you ate hamburgers, you would immediately heal near fatal flesh wounds.

"That would be kind of cool..." He replied uneasily, slowly starting to see the reasons why his questions were so absurd.

Trent and Natalie had just joined us after stopping off at the Western Union to see if there was any more luck with the cheques going through. The store was closed, and the sign posted on the front glass doors had said to return in a few hours, so through a combination of not wanting to wait that long outside and already having prior arrangements with us, they came along to the hospital.

"Well, I'm not going to." Artemis asserted, becoming agitated. "Please stop asking me."

That sentence had an effect on Trent, who now was much more interested in staring at his shoes rather than at Artemis, who was now ahead of him with the rest of us, walking at a brisker pace.

We all hurriedly climbed the steps of the hospital, past the mob of other people who were doing the same thing.

"Who is this person again?" asked Trent, lagging behind the rest of us, trying to navigate his way through the crowd who were there for everything from receiving emergency medical attention, going for a routine doctor's appointment or to do what the four of us were there for; to pay a visit to a patient.

The cold lighting illuminated the red on black painted signs that directed the masses of people to the destination that they sought. Ours was supposed to be in the "D Ward" of the hospital.

They had placed him there after he was stabilized from his flight. It was a long term care ward, used to hold people who had been and probably would be in the hospital for a while. I and to a lesser extent Artemis had seen the reason why he had to have been placed in the hospital.

A bullet had passed through the front of his right leg, and exited out the back of his calf muscle. The people who had done this were never found. It made us all sort of uneasy, especially after the introduction to our new country from our principal.

We all knew the forces that brought us together and then promptly separated us.

However, now our real goal was not to dwell on such depressing matters or even to discuss them with much detail. We were really there to say hello to a friend who probably had not heard from a friendly face for a while. Of course he had not ever met Trent or Natalie and only really glanced at Artemis before he was whisked off to this hospital from that fateful field in between here and Canalave.

We would be sure to introduce them both. Of course we would have to eventually because we would have to spend the next month together at the collegiate. Today was a good a day as ever to do it.

"I'm sure he will be ready for visitors." the nurse replied, turning around to check the roster of the hospital ward he was put in charge of. "I checked with him earlier this morning. He seems to be making progress. He should be lucid and all right."

"Could you check just to make sure?" asked Artemis sweetly, before adding. "Just don't mention we're here, thanks."

"Uhh... Sure." replied the nurse, who somehow forgot the fact that the person who he was talking to was actually a pokemon. Perhaps it was the clothes that threw him off, but it was more the fact that Artemis had sort of a human sort of way of presenting herself. A confident way and articulated way of communication.

However, it was probably our presence that made him finally convinced him to shuffle his way down the hall to check on our colleague. The concensus that we were agreeing with what she said and she was merely communicating our own question.

We had all rehearsed what we were going to do once we reached his room. We had all signed our names onto a small card that wished him a speedy recovery, and Natalie had picked up nice big box of chocolates. It probably would have been overshadowed by the multitude of presents already left to him by his family.

The nurse stepped back outside the room and headed our way. "He's fine, your free to go see him anytime now guys."

"Thank-you." replied Natalie, armed with our box of chocolates.

The door remained open, the nurse had forgot to shut it after he left. The cool light seeped through the crack in the door.

I motioned for the rest of the group to hold back for a second, kind of like a Navy SEAL would before entering hostile territory. I counted down to three on my fingers, before they pushed open the door with a loud bang before I could get to five, yelling...

"Surprise!" We all shouted, some of us more or less at the same time.

An immobile Jake was propped up in bed, reading a novel at the time of our intrusion. His injured leg was held in a sling supporting it from the bed, and holding the cast so that medical instruments could be attached to it.

The heart monitor next to him spiked dramatically for a second, suddenly going from 80 bpm to over 200 and it started to emit a high pitched whine.

The book of course went flying out of his hands before he could put a marker in to save his page.

"Jeez... You scared the crap out of me! Whats going on?" he exclaimed, wanting to know why our group interrupted the calm of the room. "Is that you David? Long time no see! Eh?"

"Yes, and I brought some guests with me." I added.

The Natu on my shoulder gave a little wave with his right wing, even though he wasn't the one I was really referring to.

"We thought we might as well make you feel a bit better while you wait to join us down at the school." Sounded Natalie, kindly handing our collective card and present over to him. "I'm Natalie by the way."

"Nice to meet you." Jake reciprocated, moving in his bed, allowing him to extend his hand far enough to reach the student.

"...And this is Trent." I indicated the other guest, who promptly made the same approach to the infirmed boy and extended his hand for him to shake.

"Nice to meet you as well." he said, before letting go.

Jake meticulously put the card after reading it onto the barren empty stand near the side of the stainless steel hospital bed. Hadn't anyone done something similar for him since he had been here?

"So who's Artemis?" he asked after placing the card down. She had managed to print the name with a pencil, a task that did not come easy due to her large paws.

"I am sir." She hesitantily announced, her hand raised in front of her to indicate who she was. I'm sure at that moment she was unsure as to how the boy would react to her note, as she didn't know Jake as more than a face she had seen only once.

"Well I'm Jake." He answered, kindly. He tried his best to make her feel more comfortable. "...And please don't call me sir." he added. "I hear that so much and it feels so cold. Inhuman... Inlucario as well." he offered his hand once again after his joke which garnered a small chuckle from Artemis as she shook his open palm.

"Its nice to be able to talk to a human face after such a long time in here. I seriously didn't expect anyone to visit me. I gave up all hope. But then you guys show up bringing some chocolate! Thanks again."

"Trust me, it was the least we could do as the rest of the student body. You make up a quarter of it. You wouldn't believe what has conspired over the past two days."

"I know, my mom already phoned me and told me everything." he said, cutting me off before I could speak any more about the elusive program that was a taboo to speak about in front of the rest of the people in the hospital. Especially after what had transpired. "Besides, all I've heard for the past few days here is that kind of thing. Why don't we sit and talk about something perhaps a bit more cheerful."

We kind of all stood there in an awkward silence for a few moments. Unsure of how to proceed. All that linked us had been negativity. However, all was for naught after our stillness broken up by an interjection by Trent. "So how about that local sports team..." We all laughed.

Before long we were talking as though we knew each other much longer than we did. I managed to find some chairs in the hospital and pulled them up to the hospital bed occupied by our colleague.

We talked about all sorts of things. We carefully skirted around the whole bigger picture in regards to the Program. Of course we talked about the school and everyhthing that was going to be going on there, but we just referred to it as if we knew of its existence all our lives. Trent eventually stopped his innessant banter about Aura and Lucarios, in order to maintain the facade.

Not wanting to leave Artemis out, we tried to avoid the subject so we just sort of talked about what we liked to do in our spare time, movies that were going to come out soon. Just sort of general stuff, mostly things to take our minds off of the crisis that was going on all around us.

We eventually got to the topic of books.

I secretely wondered up until that point how Artemis learned to read, being mostly shunned from mainstream society. I was sure that she could definitely do well if she was admitted into the collegiate, though I didn't bring up that point in hopes of not making her feel bad.

"So," Natalie asked. "Tell us your favourite novel Artemis." she said simply, after telling a long story about her addiction to Harry Potter books as a child.

"Well, there was one that meant a lot to me. It still does." she said whistfully, looking down at her feet for a moment. "It's not the best book I've read but it does hold a special place in my heart. It was the first book I ever read..." she trailed off, continuing to look down. "It brings up a lot of emotions." she said, finally.

"What book was it?" I asked quietly, dead serious. Looking around, it seemed as though the other people in the group seemed to be feeling the same way.

She laughed. "Just Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Looking back I can probably name at least one other book that was better that I have read since then. Like that 1984 book that you leant me, it certainly does bring about many questions about many of today's..." she continued, changing the subject.

It certainly troubled me her reaction to what she had just told us. It was if she was trying to forget something. But it wasn't my place to probe into her life, besides, she just met more than half of the people here for the first time earlier today.

"I had to read that for school a few years ago. I didn't know anyone read that for fun." Natalie chided.

"Well, I wouldn't say that it was a necissarily fun book, yet it does make you think..." Artemis explained, articulatedly. She was about to finish her train of thought when the door opened suddenly.

An orderly entered, clearly not the same person who had overseen our entrance to the ward. He was wearing a hospital uniform, which was a bad disguise for his bulging biceps. He looked more like a goon rather than a nurse. "I'm sorry to cut you guys off, but I just got a phone call from a Mr. Brennan." he said, not paying attention to who exactly was talking.

Mr. Brennan. That could probably mean only one person, Jake's father Rory Brennan. The captian of industry himself. At that point I didn't know him beyond a passing reference by Jake and a line written in a guide book to this country. Just some big shot buisnessman.

"Really?" Jakes eyes metaphorically lit up as he heard the news, making the same assumption, though it proved to be futile. "Can I talk to him?" He sounded as though he hadn't spoken to him in years.

"He actually just hung up before I came in here. I just got off the phone." He explained, to the dismay of Jake. The orderly didn't bat an eye, as if he was just reading off a list of groceries that he had to pick up from the store. "He told me that you were to not recieve any visitors for the time being."

"What do you mean no visitors?" he asked the orderly, forgoing the topic of his Dad's not wanting to come in contact with him.

"He said just until the city-wide lockdown is over." The man explained. It didn't make sense to me that there would be a cause for alarm. The city itself was in a lockdown. If they wanted to catch anyone they would have done it already. No new people were getting in. Except for Artemis and I of course.

"But..."

"No, I am under direct orders from your father. If your friends do not leave the premises immediately, I am authorized to get someone here to remove them for themselves." he said with cold determination. Something about this person just screamed "Don't mess with me."

In order to not start a fight with a member of the hospital staff and to draw attention to ourselves, we capitulated to his request.

"I guess I will see you guys later then." Jake said, a little bit down.

"Hey, before you know it you'll be back on your feet and with us down at the campus." I reminded him, which seemed to cheer him up a bit. He smiled weakly.

"See ya there." Trent added.

We didn't take our time saying our goodbyes after me, mostly due to the fact that we didn't want to be forcefully removed from the ward. The goon kept a close eye on the five of us.

He didn't bother to escort us to the front doors and just left in the opposite direction when we left the ward. I almost felt that there were people watching us leave the building, but I shrugged it off as just my nerves acting up.

"Nice guy. Hopefully he gets better soon." remarked Natalie, taking the initiative.

"Yep." Agreed Trent, a little bit detached from the greater conversation, an extension of the level of his presence in the conversations that took place inside the hospital.

"What?" Natalie said back. "Just yep? Nothing else?"

"He seemed like a nice person." he added to his previous statement, hoping that it would suffice for what he had to say. He paused, to change the subjects and to try to alleviate the heavy mail impeding his ability to speak. "I've just been thinking. Perhaps it was wrong for me to be such a geek about this whole place. I'm really sorry Artemis for acting like a jerk and not really seeing you as a person and more as a curiosity."

"I forgive you." Artemis remarked. "Lots of people act the same way around me. I kind of have a thick skin to it. Its really okay."

"Still doesn't make up for my idiocy. Could we still be friends?" he asked expectantly.

"Sure." she replied giving him a smile.

"Great, because I have to get going right now. The Western Union office is supposed to open in 15 minutes. Hopefully I can get that check that didn't go through now." he explained, before turning away.

"Hey Trent." he called after the teen. The anthropomorphic fox had a odd look on her face, as if she was pleased with herself. Coy.

"Yes?" he asked, caught unawares.

In a second, she lifted her right hand up to head level. She stared at it for a bit, smiling, perfectly knowing what she was about to do. When she knew that he was giving her hand the same attention she was giving it, she snapped her fingers.

It was an awkward snap, as her thick fingers did not make the cracking sound that any human's fingers would have made. Instead they simply flicked together. A small neon blue flame erupted from her index finger, giving us all a small demonstration of the pent up energy bound together within her body. She focused on the blaze, keeping it from dissapating, until the desired effect she wished was reached.

It was not the same full out blaze that Trent had so adamately described over and over again as we walked to the hospital, but it was something, and Artemis knew it. Trent simply stared in awe for a few moments before Artemis interrupted him.

"Trent? Don't you have somewhere to go?" She asked, smirking.

In an effort to try to break his focus he blinked his eyes rapidly. "Oh.. Yes, take care you guys." he said, a little bit in a daze as to what he saw almost stumbling his way down the street towards the office.

"That was amazing." responded Natalie. "But do you really think he deserved that show?"

Artemis shrugged it off. "Might as well have a little fun. I haven't released anything like that for ages."

"I guess so, but I still think that guy is a little odd." She added. "Shoot!" she remarked, she looked down, quickly checking her pockets in order to alleviate the worry she had just brought upon herself. Her hand found a yellow and black slip of paper within her jeans pocket.

"Damn it." she uttered exhasperatedly, clutching the piece of paper and staring off in the direction of where Trent had left so suddenly. His figure could still be seen turning around a corner and down the avenue a few blocks away.

"Whats wrong?" I asked, wondering what she was upset about.

"Oh no," She continued, looking up to explain it to the both of us. "I still have his money order reciept in my pocket. He handed it to me before we got here, before we went to the Western Union the first time." She contemplated her next move.

"Can't just let him get there without his papers." she said.

"Okay then, see you around." Artemis remarked. "You better run after him, before he gets too far away."

"I'll catch up with you guys later. See ya." She said back, before turning around and running full tilt in the other direction after the fourth member of our party.

Both Artemis and I watched as the black on white figure slowly was absorbed into the masses of people walking on the street, and onto another street, where the neon lights faded out on her figure.

"You never told me that you could actually control Aura like this. How did you do that?" I asked inquisitively, referencing a conversation we had on the day our paths crossed outside the coastal town of Canalave.

"Oh that?" She asked, laughing at my request for information. "That's nothing. I'm surprised that that would even saitiate that kid. Most Lucarios learn that kind of stuff when they are really young, and most are able to master more advanced forms of the art."

"But that was something." I added, citing the fact that I myself could not make flames shoot out of my fingertips.

"Yeah, but that was a complete discrace to most of my species. I should be able to do more than just that. I should be as Trent said 'Shoot flaming balls out of my hands'. Not make up something that any common match could do." She explained, not at all upset by what she had just said, as if she had grown to accept the fact that she could not do the things that most of her species could do on a whim.

"Well you can join the club of the Aura-impared with me." I joked, with her knowing full well that as a human could not do anything she was describing.

"Believe me, I was the one who founded that club." She remarked. "It is nice though that I have at least one more member." She looked at my face and smiled, before she started to walk down the street, with me following close by.

"Now, I remember saying something about going to a library near here earlier today. Would you care to join me?" She asked, raising one of her eybrows as if already knowing the answer would be from me.

"Sure. I'd love to." I replied.

"Then lets see if you can keep up with me." she stated, giving her challenge to me.

"Wha..." I started, trying to understand what she was trying to get me to do and why.

However, before I could get one word into the conversation, she bolted, taking off down the street in the opposite direction of the rest of our party.

"Hold up!" I called out to her, but she had no intentions of stopping any time soon, in fact as I said this she turned her head slightly to give me a taunt, sticking out her tongue and egging me to try to catch her.

Knowing that standing and yelling after her there was not going to help my cause, I turned to my winged companion. "Sorry buddy." I said, seeing him dissapear into a flash of red light, knowing it would be only temporary.

I did what she did moments before and began to run down the crowded street, dodging cyclists and people. At least there were no cars to deal with as well.

The street was marked like any other western culture's roadways with the dotted yellow line dividing the pavement into left and right lanes, however it was mostly used for fast moving cyclists and as a sort of guidline for the masses of pedestrians, who had to constantly watch out for impending collisions with the bicycles. Or in this case, myself.

To probably the vast majority of the population out on the street that day, I probably looked like a trainer, chasing after my disobedient Lucario, who had fled her pokeball, but they couldn't be farther from the truth. I laughed, wondering how long it would be until that changed.

Artemis turned a bend in the road and was now on the street that led up to the University, she constantly looked over her shoulder, now more for the knowledge of where I was rather than for the purpose of hurling another tease at me. I could tell that I had no chance of catching up to her. She simply kept enough distance so that I could see her in my field of vision.

*Crash* I headed straight into an unoccupied set of patio chairs and a table, at an outdoor restaurant. Tumbling to the ground, the umbrella collapsed on top of me. The rest of the patrons simply stared at me as I struggled to my feet, all too scared to say a word. I quickly and carefully stood the plastic pole back up, then picked up the chairs before turning my focus back to Artemis, who was now standing up with her hand over her mouth, as if wondering if she had inadvertantly caused the collision and was considering whether or not to chase after me to see if I was alright. But, since I got back up, turned in her direction and chased after her once more, the emotion of guilt vanished and she began running at her previous rate away from me. What was she playing at?

I vaulted over the next patio set, much like my blue-furred compatriot who had done the same manouver over the same table. It worked nearly the same as hers, though I had to bail out midway through and only succeeded in moving my legs in a half circle around the edge of the glass table top, nearly making my knee twist.

Artemis, on the other hand had now reached the steps of the University, and was revelling in her easily fought battle against me, gracefully taking the stone railing of the granite stairs as a more appropriate way of scaling up towards the door than actually taking the stairs the way they were designed to be used. She was more skilled than any traceur I have ever seen in action.

By the time I made the same move, I was way too tired to even think of attempting the stunt. It was just far too dangerous for my stumbling ankles to handle. I simply climbed up the several stone steps, like anyone who wasn't either insane or had near perfect balance would do.

I nearly collapsed, falling against the railing at the sight of Artemis, who was now sitting down on the barrier that lined the steps, examining her claws the way someone who had just wondered if they broke an acryillic nail would.

"Oh?" she said, looking down at me in mock suprise. "Need some help getting up here?" I answered her by simply extending my hand in order for her to pull me up to her level above the stairs.

All I could manage to say was "Why Artemis?"

"Hmm... Well you do have that big fight tomorrow, and I was just testing you to see how well you can run. I wasn't just going to let you go in there without knowing if you were capable of doing it." She looked to me to see my reaction.

It was a legitamite reason, and thinking now about it, I really did fail at the challenge. "If I had have told you, it would have ruined the test in many ways." I simply nodded, my mind understanding, but my body not.

"Plus, I needed to see if you could stand up to this evening's routine I'm going to put you through." She smirked, and got up and started to walk back into the front doors, not quickly like the last time she had continued without me. It took a minute for my brain to register what she had just said. There was more of this to come?

"You said that we were going to what tonight?" I asked, following her.

"Tonight, you and I are going to train you so that you may be ready for whatever comes your way tomorrow. Just to be on the safe side."

"Okay." I chuckled, not knowing what I could possibly need to practice to win in a fight against several school-aged kids. "But I am a little bit bruised and tired now that you just made me fight my way through such an austere obstical course. My arm doesn't feel right."

"Oh poor you." She replied, in sarcasm. "Want me to kiss it better?" she asked rhetorically.

"No." I replied, suprised as I yanked my arm back around the other side of my body away from her.

"Hey." She said with a grin, playfully elbowing me in my exposed side, knowing she would not hurt me. "I'm just kidding. I'm sure you'll be able to rest up fully by spending the afternoon with me in the library. No?"

"Uh, anything but that. All that time spent with you alone..." I answered back, fake grudingly. Now it was her turn to be caught unawares by my sarcasm, she shot me a look as if I had gone crazy.

"Ha, fooled you this time." I said joking. "I'd love to spend an afternoon with my favourite Lucario."

"That's not saying much. I'm the only Lucario you know." She scoffed.

"Well then I guess its all up to how you judge how much I like you." I replied, leaving the response up to her, unsaid.

"Come on you goof, lets just get to the Library already."

The natural light illuminated the entire library and my spirits.

This was perhaps the only day I had been on this island that I didn't have to either run for my life, climb a mountain or hide from police and boy did it feel great. I didn't feel horrible, I didn't want to leave, I actually felt more alive today than I probably had in a very long time.

I slumped over into a chair adjacent to one of the computers that sat in a row in the middle of the library to help regain my strength lost in the run. Lazily, I withdrew the small white and red pokeball from my pants pocket and pressed the centre button. The same small green bird I had known greeted me with a chirp.

Artemis had already gone off to the other side of the Library and emerged with arms stacked above her head with books. It was if her bones were made of some sort of iron and carbon alloy.

She unloaded the books onto the table next to me, currently unoccupied by a computer, while I flicked on the power button and turned on the monitor. I had been hoping all along to have an opportunity to contact my family sometime this week, and as there was a ban on all incoming and outgoing mail, I was hoping to be able to rely on digital media.

The screen turned blue and showed the signs of Windows 2000 splash upon the monitor, indicating that I did not need to enter in my own information, a life saver as I did not recieve a username or a password from the principal.

However, upon further inspection of the system, the non-existence of any sort of security was not the only thing abnormal about the computer. For instance, I clicked on the start menu, only to find that it was empty of any programs that I had grown to associate with the experience of using computers.

The icon that someone in my position would normally click on to access a browser was missing. No Firefox, no Opera or that other annoying browser that Microsoft puts out on a regular basis.

As an alternative, there was several other programs that were blatantly obvious to me that they were either designed natively or were simply renamed in order to avoid conflict with the country's import laws.

So I clicked on the small symbol of the Vulpix on the list, a clone of the popular internet browser "Firefox". I laughed quietly at the joke that perhaps only I and a few other people would have understood. Artemis ignored me and continued to read her book, flipping a page every minute or so.

Home for these computers was the school's home page, with information of cafeteria specials, when there would be exams, days the students got off and so on. Hypertext protocol was missing from the address bar in the top corner of the window, which suprised me as this is usually what allows these types of programs to work. I assumed it must have been a local file as it had no internet address.

I erased the school's website from the top of the screen and typed in my email's page.

Loading... Loading... Loading...

It timed out saying that the desired IRL could not be retrieved. I tried again, and again there was no response.

In the top corner, there was a search bar, much like the one that would be normally used for google or yahoo. I typed it in there, and all I got was a whole bunch of hits that did not direct me to Hotmail, but rather all to the same server.

"This is annoying." I muttered to myself.

"What did you say?" Asked Artemis, taking her eyes off of her open book.

"I'm just trying to figure out how to open my email." I replied. "Do you know if they have hotmail here?"

"I've never heard anyone mention that one before, but I'm not that experienced with computers." She paused for a moment, to set down her book without losing her page, before taking the computer keyboard from my hands. "Here, let me try."

"Now, I haven't been able to actually try this out in real life, but I have had the opportunity to read about it in several books." She took a look at the keyboard, looking at the qwerty layout as if it was a foreign language, having to decypher it in order to type in what she wanted to write.

As soon as she found the keys she was looking for, she managed to type in a address, one that made the screen turn white and then switch to a new screen, one that was not at all like the IRL denied screen.

It was what looked to be the main page for the entire United Islands, a directory if you will to all of the webpages within the isolated system. A news page, a email system, a section for games and an online encyclopedia.

"Well, that's the internet." announced Artemis, as if she discovered a new chemical element.

"Just this?" I asked, bewildered.

"Yes, just that, the government put it out a decade and a half ago as part of a digitalization scheme or something." She handed me the keyboard. "I prefer books though, no annoying popups distracting me from what I'm reading."

Sure enough, there was a logo in the top lefthand corner that described its as the only hub for the internet, sharing its server name with the search engine I had previously used.

She went back into her book, while I after thanking her went back in to try to retrieve my emails that I had missed for the past week. However, instead of the usual client, there was this odd Mozilla Zapados, an obvious analog to the other Mozilla client. In an act of despiration I entered in my information, hoping I could access my account, though the program understandibly objected to the password and username.

At that point I knew that even if I decided to open a new account, I still would not be able to send anything to my family back home.

Accepting of this, I clicked off of the email server and went back to the front page of the internet, showng the several areas that people could use. One a flickr analog showed a picture of a Feraligator standing upright beside its owner. It was the same species that the school's mascot was, except this one was one in real life, coloured blue, red and white. Again, I didn't really want to run into one of these things. The pictures went on and on with increasingly more and more disturbing organisms, eventually ending up in a picture of an literal cluster of electified magnets. In disbelief, I clicked off the site.

I didn't bother opening the games section, or the one about the new movies that were going to come out here, often times redubbed into being in tune with the local populace. Instead, what caught my eye was the news section, but unlike the previous times I had stood in awe of the media here, I did not dwell on the negative threats that surrounded my life. Instead, I clicked on the link that dealt with the soon to be recent battle in the square, the same one I had been scheduled to be in the next day.

A big picture of the officials standing around the preparations for the event in the center of the city filled the top left of the screen, indicating the time and location it would be at.

The wording was ambiguous. It was largely a publicity stunt pulled by Poketech, the same corporation that Jake's dad owned.

Apparently the company had bought the land South of the city and had begun to create an industrial complex and R&D center. This contest was to advertise that fact, and highlighting it was the personal tour the winner recieved. The one thousand dollar prize was insignificant to the company.

Apparently fighters called "Trainers" would fight it out in the arena. One would win at the end of course and would advance to the next round. It didn't really explain what was allowed, merely that all "types" were allowed. I assumed that meant the different martial arts, boxing, etc.

It was interesting and all, but it was not a way to spend an afternoon, reading small snippets of data.

I glanced to Artemis, still silently reading, her feet comfortably up on the top of the table.

"Anything you can recommend?" I asked, shutting off the machine.

She simply threw me a book, not taking her eyes off her own. "Tell me what you think of this first."

We remained there for the rest of the day, relaxing and just enjoying each other's company, stopping every 50 pages or so pages to talk. It was a good afternoon. I probably read more then than I had all month.

My Natu kept himself busy during this, repeatedly climbing the same few bookcases around the two of us, and then entertainingly gliding down. It was a good thing the library was deserted again.

I remember him doing this back when I first took him out when I met Artemis, only this time the distances were much farther and he was having some trouble with the manoever. He would of course need to practice more if he ever wanted to evolve. Wouldn't he? I didn't have a clue.

The day sadly proceeded and soon the light that had been flooding in through the windows had since faded to a lighter shade of dark blue and then to a dark grey, with an accompaniment of rain.

Artemis reminded me that we still had our evening training that we had to do, something that secretly I dreaded. I asked if we still had to do it as the rain would have made it rather unpleasant to be outside, especially for Artemis with a full fur coat on. She reminded me that we were going ahead anyways, which I didn't object to.

I gave Artemis my jacket to cover her top half from the freezing rain as we dashed back across the lawn separating where we lived from the glass encased school library.

The place we had chosen to practice was perhaps not the safest, nor was it the best suited to our needs for space. The hallway that was going to attach my dorm with the rest of the block was good enough in a pinch. At least it got us out of the rain.

A few fogged incandescent light bulbs hanging from their exposed wires dimly lit the space with an almost alien glow. I stood a dozen or so feet away from Artemis down the hallway, standing at attention for what she would throw at me.

She began to stretch, warming up the muscles in her legs and arms, and I, attempting to follow her lead, also attempted to do the same. I must stress the word 'attempted' in this context. For instance, when Artemis demonstrated the proper technique for reaching and grabbing hold of one's foot, I merely showed how to dislocate one's shoulder. What saved me from horrible injury was the fact that I did not do that properly either.

"Now, unlike the last time we tried out those spikes of yours, I will not be aiming for them, I will be aiming for you." I gulped, as she explained her teaching methods. "Its going to be just like a real fight. So if you can't block then your screwed."

"Good to know." I started getting into some sort of ready position to brace for the blows I thought I would recieve. I put both my hands up as sort of a shield for my head and completely shutting my eyes, not allowing me to see anything.

"First things first." She walked over to me and pryed apart my arms, showing my face in expression of pure terror at what was going to happen. "I wouldn't expect you to just be able to block right off the bat. David, you have to get into the right position, otherwise you will get hurt." she said.

Moving my arms, and reapposing my legs, she spread my feet wider apart, giving myself a steadier stance and allowing my arms to be in a more opportune position to intercept incoming punches with my wrist spikes. Then, stepping back as if admiring a work of art she created, she gave me the thumbs up before moving back to her original spot, taking the exact same position that I was in.

I awaited my fate again, shutting my eyes again.

"You are not going to get anywhere in a fight if you close your eyes. Keep your line of vision on my wrist spikes. Otherwise, I can guarantee that you will get hit." She said, trying to get me to get some resemblence of anyone who had spent any time at all practicing a martial art. I focused intently on her, trying to not be the most incompetent student she probably had ever taught.

"Now, I am going to attack you right now, make sure you are ready with the bracers." She instructed, indicating with her own spikes how to do the correct manoever to successfully deflect the strike.

"Okay. I think I got it." I announced, a little bit weaker than perhaps it should have been.

She lunged forward, moving at a swift speed projecting her hand in front of her body, her fingers balled into a fist, even though they weren't the intended weapon. Her white arm spike stood out against the dark background behind us, travelling towards my right side.

I tried to attempt the same move that Artemis had told me. I shot my arm up instinctively, attempting to intercept the blue and black one that was shooting towards me. Was it too early? Was I using enough force?

Smack!

Our two spikes connected midair, a spark of static exploded. My arm was pushed backwards, rotating in its socket to the point where it hurt. I lost my balance and fell onto the floor in order to make sure my arm didn't dislocate. My other arm reaching behind me.

"Dead." Artemis said cooly.

"Wha..." I attempted to ask, surprised that I even survived that hit.

"You just gave me the perfect opportunity to strike you in any place I wish to. If I really wanted to kill you I could have right there."

"I see." I remarked.

"I see?" she repeated with a smirk. "Get up. We have a lot of work to do." She offered her hand down to me, and without another word, I accepted, got back into my original position and waited for more orders.

"Now I am going to do the same thing as I did before..."

We went on like this for a few hours, with Artemis leading me through the motions, helping me develop as a fighter. Though, with a little bit of effort, I was able to change from the hopeless unfit student into a underskilled somewhat unfit student who was able to go through anything just to get that one thousand dollars.

Believe me when I say that it was a big improvement.

Artemis never got frustrated throughout the whole process, simply telling me to try the move she was teaching me again, or with extra strength or with more focus.

I was far from ready for tomorrow, but I was more so than before.

"Head strike!" Shouted Artemis in a pitch that made me thankful that there was no one else in the block to yell at us to be quiet at this time of the evening.

A blue fist punched directly at my head, which I dodged, quickly before rolling on the floor to get at a more opportune location to make a counter strike. Tumbling, I regained footing on the tiled floor, my eyes fixated on my opponent.

"Left arm strike." I called back, leaping for my target, almost already knowing that it would be blocked, which it was. She deftly twirled her arm, making the spike literally flip my arm all the way around.

Artemis took the opportunity to stage an attack on me, winding up her arm...

Though, with the instruction I had recieved, I was able to recover. My arm came full circle and...

"Head strike!" We both shouted simultaniously.

Our twin spears hit midstrike, a flash of lightening, a collision of bone upon metal, the energy being expelled illuminated the room, much more so than the tiny amount of light that had been coming out of the installed lights hanging from the ceiling.

Surprisingly, I did not fly back and land on my behind, probably something that I would have done earlier in the day.

Artemis on the other hand was in a daze, shocked by the instantanious collision. She just let her hand swing down to her side, staring blankly at me.

"Dead?" I asked uneasily, mimicking the exact word she had used on me on multiple occasions that evening. I raised my hand slowly to face level, to heighten the effect.

In response, she shook her head clearly, making sure that she regained her faculties. When she noticed my hand, she simply lowered it, smirking. "Very funny. If it wasn't 3 in the bloody morning I wouldn't be such a sitting psyduck wouldn't I?"

"True. But I still got a shot on you that you didn't block." I countered sheepishly.

"Are you going to lord that over me now?" she asked skeptically.

"No..." I decided, drawing out the time it took for me to make the decision for comic relief. "But I will use it as a grounds to turn in for the evening."

"Agreed." Artemis echoed, tired.

We silently retired back to our room, exhausted. Too tired to change, I simply climbed into my side of the bed. I remember saying goodnight to Artemis, but finding her already asleep along with the Natu on my beside table.

I dosed off, having the warming thoughts of my first free day here in my mind's eye, not knowing that it would be the last I would experience for a while.

...

Sorry about the long wait times everyone. I hope this makes your wait worth while.

Enjoy!

BTW: Happy Holidays!


	11. Battle Preparations

I jolted awake. Sweat stung my eyes as I opened them suddenly, only to see an ocean of black in front of the bed. No sun illuminated the room and I could immediately tell that I had not been asleep for long.

Wiping my face with the back of my hand, I turned to look at the clock which read a quarter past three in classic digital numbers. Satisfied, I sunk back down into my previous position.

A nightmare, it was just a nightmare. The dream was odd, it was one of those dreams that you cannot control, nor completely understand the circumstances your "dream-self" is in but you feel every emotion that he would. In this case, none of those emotions were good ones.

In the dream I was caught in a struggle, and I was injured, hurt and on the ground. The room I was in was not one that I had ever seen in my life, it was stark white, the walls were put in the floor at impossible angles. Someone was standing, telling me that I deserved my fate. That what I did directly caused his action. I couldn't determine my crime, even though I knew it wasn't wrong.

It didn't make sense. But then again, when do dreams ever make sense?

"It was just nerves..." I told myself in my mind. It was just my overactive brain dwelling on the inevitable fight I would have to take part in tomorrow. This was strange, as I didn't become consumed by the ever present dangers that haunted me ever since I had stepped off of that ferry. Maybe it was the fact that this was the first time I had prior notice that things were going to happen to me that perhaps weren't that pleasant and that probably the idea that I would be fighting children just seemed to be too easy. There had to be a catch to it.

Nevertheless, the dream, even though I knew it wasn't real left me very awake at a time where I really should be fast asleep.

I thought I should probably check if I had awakened anyone else in my haste. A quick look to my right showed Artemis, still asleep and turned the other way.

If I knew Artemis at all, I knew that she would never allow me to enter anything that would directly put myself at risk, even for a cash reward without first telling me. If she knew about anything more than I did, she would tell me.

But how could I be so arrogant to assume that she was telling me the whole truth when I have been lying to her all along, withholding my own information about my own life. I reminded myself that it was out of necessity, but I still felt bad about it. I vowed that I would make things right as soon as I could.

I rolled over in bed to come face to face with my Natu which had like Artemis, stayed asleep. I felt as though I was neglecting him, as well as also lying to him too. I had said that I wasn't going to put him in a pokeball and I did so out of convenience on multiple occasions. I had not really been paying much attention to him as much as I should have.

I was an awful person. That's what I was, but I was just a product of the circumstances that brought me into this realization. I wasn't myself. Ideally I wished this whole drama with the PFLO to be over, and that the Collegiate would get its funding back, but that was just living in denial of what was really going on around me.

I was going to bring them in on what was really happening, no matter what the official rules were about letting people in on the program. The program was dead anyways. Who was I kidding by continuing to act the way I was?

The minutes ticked on as I pondered this. The continued activity of my brain prevented me from switching off. It was going to be a long night...

Artemis woke me quickly the next morning, disturbing me from a very shallow sleep I could only estimate began an hour or two earlier.

I quickly got dressed, grabbed my wallet and meal tickets for the two of us and with the metal wrist bracers attached to my forearms and my Natu on my shoulder, we were out the door and on our way to the town centre.

The square that had previously been empty except for a few people had now been transformed into a large stadium. Literally, the set up happened overnight, and if I hadn't just been there the previous day, I would not have thought that the structure had not been there for some time.

When you first walked into the square from the South, you were greeted with a big white canvas tent that blocked off what had been an uninhibited entrance to the open area. It was erected with sturdy metal pillars probably a metre across and was probably at least forty feet tall.

The company must have been taking this very seriously, a very lavish construct for what I had only understood to be a simple publicity stunt. They even took the time to fly an oversized version of the United Islands flag from a pole to the right of the tent as almost a testament to the importance of the event. It was if almost this was more than just an average fighting tournament, this was supposed to be a symbol of national pride.

The sight of it caught my attention and reminded me of the magnitude of what I was about to do.

"Are you ready to do this?" Artemis asked, as we approached the tent's opening.

I swallowed audibly then opened the semi-permanent double doors. "As ready as I will ever be." I replied uneasily, giving a small nervous laugh, not at all reassuring my position that I was capable of going through with this.

I stopped, holding the door open for her and looked around at my surroundings. The place that I could assume was the reception area for the participants. It was laid out in a half-circle, with the curved side facing outwards behind me and the flat side separated me from the courtyard.

People were milling about throughout its extensive interior, a few camera operators and their respective newscasters were present, but not in large numbers. One person who I could tell was a contestant sat across from one of them, accompanied by several of what could be assumed were his pokemon. The camera kept zooming in on each of them, which confused me. Wouldn't they be more interested in the person actually going into the event?

A large metal and glass table extended from the wall, closing around on all three sides of an individual wearing a white lab coat bearing the Pokecorp logo. He had a clipboard in one hand and a pencil in the other. It didn't take a genius to figure out this was the guy that participants were to register with. As soon as I travelled a few steps into the tent, he beckoned me over.

"Looking for the sign in sheet?" he asked.

"Yes actually." I answered as politely as I could.

"Here you are." he said as he handed the first of his cork material clipboards along with a pen for which to write my name under the dozen or so people who had already done so.

I signed it, giving it a quick rendition of my name in handwriting before giving it back to the receptionist who thanked me. He glanced at my name and murmured it to himself as if mentally confirming that it was actually me who signed and searched through another set of printed documents for a name matching my own.

"Now for your pokemon." he added, before handing me a separate sheet with my name in bold at the top.

"I don't understand." I stated. My pokemon? It did not make sense to me. I was the one going to fight. They obviously assumed that Artemis and my Natu were in my possession but why did they need a list. Was it to give them to the company for safekeeping while I took part in the competition?

"We need the pokemon that are competing to be registered." He tried to explain. "It's just for the announcers to know who is coming up next and stuff like that."

"I'm the one competing though." I asserted. I really thought he was just joking around with me at this point.

The man looked at me, as I was the one not being serious. "I know you are the one competing. I need to know your team, who is going to be fighting with you." I think at this point he really did get that I was being completely straight forward with him. "You do realize that this is a pokemon competition do you?"

That is the precise moment that everything came together. When I signed up, the other people there were not intimidated by me; they were intimidated because Artemis had been right beside me. There was no age limit because the people who entered weren't actually fighting each other, but instead using their pokemon as proxies. This wasn't something I was about to do, not to Artemis.

"Sorry man, this wasn't what I signed up for." I said, giving him a small gesture that I wasn't interested.

"I hate to tell you this but there will be a penalty for withdrawing yourself at this point." He said with an understanding expression. Really, I didn't have the money to spend to pay them off. I was broke, that's why I was here.

I looked to Artemis for advice who replied with a quick "I didn't volunteer for this." I had no intention of putting her on the spot like that anyways.

"Is there any way of me getting out of here without either paying a huge fine or having to fight with pokemon?"

"It's not a huge fine. Just to compensate the equipment that we had available for you." he tried to assure me, but since I had absolutely no money, that wasn't an option. It was probably time to explain myself fully as to the reason why I wasn't going to be a contestant.

"I'm really sorry man. I thought this was going to be a human fighting tournament. Not this. I'm broke and I'm not going to sign up any pokemon to fight on my behalf because of my own mistake."

He nodded, understanding me. "Rules are rules Mr. Wilson and I apologize, but I am unable to make any adjustments to what the company decides upon."

I looked behind me to see if anyone else was waiting to talk to the clerk before continuing "I would have entered this contest if I could, I'm not getting cold feet or anything." I stated, venting my frustration at the situation. "I would still enter the contest even now, but apparently I can't." I added sarcastically. "Furthermore I am not prepared to pay the money that you want from me. How much is it?"

"One hundred." he replied.

"I'm not prepared to go out that door and beg for that, but I will if you want me to." I explained further, heightening his sense of desperate I really was.

"...and you are not prepared to enter either of your pokemon?" he asked.

"No, I am not." I replied bluntly.

He exhaled for effect, looking down towards the table. He was trying to find a solution to the problem at hand. "I mean hypothetically, you probably could enter the fight yourself. There used to be people who did fight in pokemon tournaments."

"Really?" I answered, more morbidly curious than actually excited at my own prospects at doing something similar.

"However the practice has become rather obsolete." he twirled his hand in a circular motion as if coaxing himself to finish his sentence. "Fighting has become much more dangerous, and of course pokemon aren't really affected because they can just be healed instantly but they still haven't invented a device that does the same thing for humans. You could potentially be really injured."

I nodded taking this in; I was thinking that this was not going to be the best plan to get out of this.

"That said," he continued. "This is an amateur tournament and the chances of you going up against anyone really competent are slim to none." He explained, as if he were an expert on the sport."When you thought that this was a human fight, you probably noticed the lack of anyone you would consider fighting in any other situation because of their size. This is mainly for young people who are just getting started out in this sport."

"So you are encouraging me to go ahead and enter myself?"

He chuckled a bit. "I'm surprised you are even considering this. Hold on a minute, I have to get out a rule book here to see if that rule I was telling you about is still valid."

Within a few seconds a large paperback, about twice the size of an average pocketbook was out on the table. He looked at the table of contents before flipping to the page he was directed to and simultaneously turned it for myself and a lesser extent Artemis to view as well.

"Now under eligible entrants, it states that while pokemon are required for more advanced forms of the competition, the rules are more vague for smaller competitions such as this one." He paused. "Anything goes basically, as long as the contestant is fit to face the opposition. That said, there are two things, one we cannot be responsible for any injuries you may incur and two if you yourself enter the tournament, you are going to need someone to stand in your place as trainer."

Now, caught between a rock and a hard place, I was left with in reality no options.

"Well, if you are going ahead with this, I might as well be your trainer." Artemis cut in, almost breaking into laughter as she finished her sentence, the absurdity of it coming to a head.

"I'm pretty sure the company wouldn't want a pokemon in the same position as the other trainers..." he began, reaching for the rule book.

She stopped him, trying to be as polite as possible in her tone. "The least you can do is let me fill in for him. This is still a low level competition right?" she replied casually.

The receptionist shrugged. "Sure I guess so."

"There, everything is taken care of." I said.

"Wait." Artemis interjected. "So you are actually going to enter?"

I took a deep breath, literally despising what I had to say next. "Where do I sign?"

I walked down the hallway in a daze. The vaulted, closed top of the white tent we were in let in virtually no light, so our way was marked by shop lights hooked onto the framework that held the place up. I could not help but muttering to myself as I walked. "How could I have been oblivious to the real purpose of this competition?"

Artemis remained silent, as I followed by her side. Her eyes darted back and forth at the numbers hastily stickered on to each of the rooms. Behind each of the fabric covering the doorways, one could hear the heated pep talks of some contestants, hoping to give the last minute battle plans to their pokemon warriors. Behind others there was silence. Each was unique, but I really didn't care to pick out any conversation in particular.

The Natu on my shoulder remained still on his perch, probably thankful that I did not press-gang it into my service as an entrant into the fray. I had no intent and never would have intent to do so.

We eventually came upon the room that was ours, the number designated by the man at the front desk, number 23.

The curtain or door if you could call it that opened to a small changing room. A medium sized picnic table had been dragged across the cobblestone to the center of the room for the event. A kind of placard, the ones often used in marathons and other athletic events lay across the edge of it and a half dozen air freshener looking bottles were placed on the other side in a neat little square. I remember seeing identical bottles in the makeshift interrogation room in Canalave.

"You really fucked up." Artemis remarked.

I could have rebutted, saying that she didn't notice the wording of the poster any more than I did. Instead, I just started laughing to myself as I took a seat on the bench.

"What are you laughing at?" she asked.

"I never heard you curse before..."

"I thought the situation was worthy..." She shook her head and stopped herself. "Aren't you the slightest bit ashamed of what you have done?"

"The damage has already been done." I replied casually. "I'm trying to make the best of it."

"Yes David, it has." She said coldly. "Now you are going to fight in a competition that stands for everything that has stopped me from accomplishing anything in my life so far and you think that it was just a simple mistake." She was right, I didn't have to put up with half of what she must have dealt with as a kid.

"There has to be some way we can make this right." I stated, searching my mind for a solution to the problem.

"A way other than just sneaking out?" She retorted. Walking out the back door was not something I was about to do. I had to fight, but how could I turn this into something positive? There had to be a way of making a statement while I was out there. Just saying that I didn't want to be out there but I was forced to due to rules was probably not going to be the best way or the most poetic.

Perhaps it would have to be Artemis that would be the deciding factor in this. I had a plan.

"Well?" she asked, prompting me for my response and giving me a sceptical look.

"I do have a proposal." I said. "Just hear me out on this one. You don't have to go through with it if you don't want to."

"I'm listening."

"I remember you talking to me on our way from Canalave to here. You said that you had no way of getting recognized as intelligent because you had no way of telling people about it mainly because of people's perceptions as to what Lucario's are in society."

"Thanks for reminding me of that." She fired back, jokingly as if it was some morbid humorous situation.

"Now, I know that fighting with pokemon is not necessarily the best practice, in fact it is far from it, but we are in the media spotlight. There are television cameras and newspaper reporters waiting out in the stands today." I explained, dramatically pointing through the sheet that divided our room from the stadium.

"This has been one of the first times in recent history that any person has fought in this sport." I accentuated the word sport with finger gestures indicating quotation marks. "They will definitely be interested in us for that reason. Furthermore, you will probably be the first Lucario to enter as a trainer. They'll flock to us, they'll ask you how you managed to pull it off. How you managed to train me, the useless teenage human into a person who was able to pull off a surprise victory. So Artemis how did you do it?" I asked half-jokingly, extending my arm, miming a microphone like I was a reporter doing a six o'clock news story.

She smiled, thank goodness. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves here." She chuckled, putting her hands onto mine, closing around it. "You still have to do well in the fight and frankly I don't know how much you actually got out of only one lesson from me. But..."

She trailed off, hesitating, thinking about what she was agreeing to once again. "You know what," she started again, this time with much more strength behind her voice. "Screw it! We are going to win! Get up, we need to get some last minute training in."

I broke off contact between us, and then turned my head to the side to face my Natu. "Mind taking a perch on the bench for bit?" I asked it, with it giving a quick chirp as a reply as it jumped off my shoulder and glided using it stubby little wings.

I watched for a moment as it turned around to look at me with its bright blue eyes. I knew that he could never smile, but I could feel from his very potent aura that he was content, in good spirits.

"David!"

I almost fell backwards when I saw Artemis's fingers snap right in front of my face. A few clicks and I was back into reality. "You were in a trance again..." She spoke as if it were something that happened on a regular basis. "I hope you are not as susceptible to psychic types when you are out there today."

I brushed off any doubts as to my psychic integrity and the somewhat odd phenomenon. "Hopefully I'm not. I can't say that I put up much resistance anyways when I am around him."

"Well, today you will have to, because today if you break focus you could end up with serious injuries, or even dead." She forewarned me.

"Thanks for reminding me..." I smugly replied, reflecting my then current state and how nervous I was, even though I was standing with two metal weapons on my wrists waiting for instructions on how to fight unimaginable opponents that lived to do battle.

"Now," she continued, ignoring my remark. "For your second lesson in blocking. These are some more advanced techniques..."

"You're on next."

It was like being called up for The Price is Right, except instead of potentially winning a boat or some money, the winner just got to live another day and the loser gets a selection of bruises as a consolation prize. You would be crazy to not be scared out of your mind.

"I would suggest you head out now onto the sideboards and wait for the next fight to end." he continued, holding one of his hands over the large microphone that he had attached to his outfit. "Off the record here, but everyone is really excited about you guys, good luck."

The television worker with the oversized headset left as quickly as he came in our room, back into the stadium.

We had just finished a set of complex set of fighting manoeuvres which left me feeling like I could handle more, but at the same time, it left me a little bit flustered as to how I was actually going to be able to use the techniques without screwing them up.

Artemis gave me a reassuring glance, placing her arm on my shoulder.

"I've done all I can do with you. Hopefully you can do something with what I have taught you. Remember to listen to me when we get out there, and don't, I repeat do not do anything stupid." She said, not being malicious in her words, but more out of real concern for my well being.

"I plan on it." I said, stumbling on my words. "I mean I don't plan on it... Doing anything stupid I mean." I tried to explain, hopelessly making myself look like an idiot.

"David..." Artemis continued, snaking her arm around my back and joining her hands around me, forming a hug. My eyes were still wide from the anxiousness of having to fight in a few minutes, I tried to hide it, but I knew my fear showed on my face. In my shock, I managed to reciprocate the contact with her.

She leant into me, speaking softly. "I just want you to remain in one piece after doing this, so do well." Being embraced in such a manner managed to warm me up inside.

I grinned. "I'm sure we will..."

"Getting cocky now?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow and receding from my shoulder for a moment to look me in the eyes. She wore a smile on her face

"Well, seeing how well we do as a team." I replied, as light-heartedly as I did before, with my message true.

Artemis then did something I wasn't prepared for; she kissed me on the cheek lightly. She extended her muzzle to my face and pressed her lips onto my skin. "Good luck." she said as she withdrew from my face back to the same distance she was before.

I could tell that she could see me blushing vigorously and my face turning a bright crimson. She laughed at this, which only made my condition worse. "You got embarrassed by that?" she asked, rhetorically. She said it more to mock me more than anything, though she did not do so maliciously and to see how long she could drag out me being uncomfortable. I didn't want to admit it, but it had been the first time in my life that I had been kissed by someone other than a member of my family.

"No," I lied, shrugging it off and leaning into her this time, mimicking her actions only seconds earlier and I kissed her in the same place she did to me. "It was a little unexpected that's all." I explained. She had a similar look on her face that I did after being kissed by her but I did not elaborate on it.

"We'd better be going, Artemis. The next fight should be starting soon." I said, sadly removing my arms from her shoulders as she did from mine, a kind of dreamy stare still was present on her face.

I turned to see what we were supposed to do with all of the stuff that was laid out for us on the bench. I wondered what the little purple and white bottles were for. To me they looked like water bottles, but what put me off was the oddly shaped nozzle placed on the top. They were more like cleaning solution bottles more than anything.

"Those, I believe are called potions." Artemis said, grabbing two of them and giving them an inspection with her eyes. "I'm not an expert, but I think they are used as medicine for pokemon. I'm not sure how they would work on a human."

"So you just spray the stuff on a wound?" I asked, taking one and eyeing it over myself.

"Seems that way." She remarked. "It wouldn't hurt for me to take a few in case you need them." She said, placing one in each of her pants pockets.

"This is for you." I handed her the placard that identified her as our team's trainer as I replaced the potion I took back into the stack that was already on the bench.

"Thank you." she replied, slipping it on. 'Competitor 23' it read across her chest. She had to loosen it a bit so that it sat below the spike on her chest.

"C'mon Natu." Artemis cajoled, extending her arm down to the level of the bench so that the little bird could climb up her arm and onto her shoulder.

...And there we were. All suited up for the fight, me with my dangerous metal spikes on my arms, while wearing a t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts. I was no warrior. There was also Artemis, with the Natu on her shoulder, a placard that made her look like she was going to enter a track meet and enough medicine in her pockets to tranquilize an elephant.

"Ready?" she asked. "I know I am."

"You bet." I replied and the Natu let out a chirp of agreement.

This whole situation reminded me of the cartoon series I watched as a kid, how romanticized it was, not showing the grim reality of what I was going to do. After being here as long I was, I knew I could not go by what I saw on it as a good guide as to what to expect out of this place. A part of me wished that this place was more similar to the colourful and upbeat world of my childhood.

However, as I thought about it, what would be different about my time here? For one thing, there probably wouldn't have been as many times as there were where my life was in jeopardy. There probably wouldn't have been the person shooting at us out on route 218 or the arson that killed that innocent old man in Canalave.

Then again, if the television show was right in its depiction of the islands, Artemis probably would not have been the person she was. She would have just been some person's tool of warfare and I would be some one-dimensional self-obsessed 12-year old who is more interested in obtaining bits of metal than getting an education or even a girlfriend.

But for that one moment, I felt as though I was like the star of the show and this afternoon was just going to be the next part of some grandiose adventure and at the same time I felt as though I had sold my soul and stepping out the doors from the dressing room was the same as handing it over to a shadowy buyer.


End file.
